Açiq mənbələrdən foto.
Washington D.C./04.04.23/Turan: Before Russia's Putin invaded Ukraine last year, Finland had maintained mostly cordial relations with Russia. Now, however, NATO doubles its border with Russia, thanks to more than 800 miles of frontier Russia shares with the Nordic country.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday he was "tempted to say this is maybe the one thing we can thank Mr Putin for, because he once again here has precipitated something he claims to want to prevent by Russia's aggression, causing many countries to believe that they have to do more to look out for their own defense"
As Finland officially joined NATO yesterday, it also brings with it a well-equipped and trained armed force of about 30,000. It can additionally call on 250,000 reserves.
"Let Finland be a lesson to President Putin" British Defense minister Ben Wallace said in a statement. "Finland chose to join, based on their own free will."
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin believes that "Putin’s war is not the result of NATO enlargement—it is the cause of NATO enlargement."
"And the United States is determined to stand with Ukraine’s brave defenders for as long as it takes," he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Finland. "We expect [the] NATO summit in Vilnius will bring Ukraine closer to our Euro-Atlantic goal" he noted.
Alex Raufoglu
Politics
-
The preliminary investigation into the case of Russian oligarch and former "state minister" of the separatist regime of Nagorno-Karabakh, Ruben Vardanyan, has been completed. According to a joint statement by the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Security Service of Azerbaijan, Vardanyan has been charged under the following articles of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code: Article 100 (planning or waging aggressive war), Article 107 (deportation or coercion of the population), Article 109 (persecution), Article 112 (deprivation of liberty in violation of international law), Article 113 (torture), Article 114 (mercenary activities), Article 115 (violating laws and customs of war), Article 116 (violating laws and customs of war), Article 214 (terrorism), Article 214-1 (financing terrorism), Article 218 (organization of a criminal community), Article 228 (illegal trafficking in weapons), Article 270-1 (creating threats to aviation safety), Article 278 (violent seizure of power or violent retention of power, violent change of the constitutional order of the state), Article 279 (creation of illegal armed formations), Article 318 (illegal crossing of the Azerbaijani state border).
-
On December 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, as reported by the Kremlin's press service. During the conversation, the issues related to the crash of the AZAL passenger plane on December 25 near the city of Aktau were discussed in detail. "Vladimir Putin expressed his apologies for the tragic incident occurring in Russian airspace and once again conveyed his deep and sincere condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured," the statement emphasized.
-
On December 28, the trial of Abzas Media began, with the prosecutor reading the indictment. At the start of the session at the Baku Serious Crimes Court, the accused, the chief editor of Abzas Media, Sevinc Vagifgizi, filed a motion to disqualify the court panel. She argued that the current composition of the judges could not conduct an impartial investigation, as two of the three judges had previously ruled on cases involving political prisoners.
-
Azerbaijan plans to revise the rules for the temporary stay of Russian citizens within its territory in the near future, according to Ayhan Hajizade, spokesperson for Azerbaijan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Leave a review