“We had no troops there (along the shared border); now there will be. There were no weapons systems; now there will be,’’ the Russian leader said.
Mr Stoltenberg praised the raising of the Finish flag for the first time at the alliance headquarters in Belgium.
Turkey’s parliament is scheduled to vote on Finland’s accession to the NATO military alliance.
The Finnish parliament is scheduled to vote on a bill on Wednesday that will pave the way for the country to join NATO.
At a press conference with his Turkish counterpart in Ankara, Mr Blinken said Sweden and Finland should be admitted to NATO as quickly as possible.
Before Russia’s war in Ukraine, the Social Democratic Party had been opposed to Sweden joining NATO.
