Important Takeaways:

• Finland, Sweden brush off Moscow’s warning on joining NATO
• A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry Friday voiced concern about what it described as efforts by the United States and some of its allies to “drag” Finland and Sweden into NATO and warned that Moscow would be forced to take retaliatory measures if they join the alliance.
• Finland has a 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) land border with Russia — the longest border shared by any European Union member state and Russia.
• Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Saturday that “we’ve heard this before.”
• In Sweden, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson addressed Moscow’s statement in a joint news conference Friday with Sweden’s military commander Micael Byden.
• “I want to be extremely clear. It is Sweden that itself and independently decides on our security policy line,” Andersson said.

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