Finland has officially joined Nato, doubling the military alliance’s border with Russia and dealing a significant blow to president Vladimir Putin.
Finland’s membership became official when its foreign minister handed over documents completing its accession process to US secretary of state Antony Blinken, whose department is the repository of Nato membership texts.
Russia has warned that it would be forced to take “retaliatory measures” to address what it called security threats created by Finland’s membership, and that it will bolster forces near Finland if Nato sends any additional troops or equipment to what will be its 31st member country.
It comes as a former presidential protection officer who has defected from Russia claimed that Mr Putin is “pathologically afraid for his life” and has spent the last few years living in an “information cocoon”.
In an incendiary interview with Dossier, Gleb Karakulov, 35, said Mr Putin had “lost touch with the world” having lived in an “an information cocoon for the past couple of years, spending most of his time in his residences, which the media very fittingly call bunkers.”
