Speaking to Ayesha Hazarika, former nato emerging security challenges deputy assistant secretary general Jamie Shea said: “The more that Russia tried to bully countries in Central and Eastern Europe out of joining NATO, the more fearsome that they became naturally, and therefore, the more they wanted to join the alliance.
“Russia is rather like the sort of pyrotechnic firefighter that constantly is trying to solve a problem that it itself has created.”
He added that Finland had been the subject of repeated attacks from Russia in the past few days. He said: “What Finland or Sweden now see is that the security situation in Europe has deteriorated and they see that there is a potential threat to themselves.
“Just in the last couple of days, for example, Finnish airspace has been violated, Finland has been subjected to quite severe cyber attacks on its government institutions, its GPS signals have been jammed repeatedly, and so on.”
Jamie Shea also talked about the potential use of chemical weapons in Ukraine by Russia, as well as the response NATO and the West should give to these new attacks.
Listen to Jamie Sheas interview on Times Radio.
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