Russia To Withdraw From Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference

RIA has reported that the speaker of the Russian Duma Vyacheslav Volodin has announced Russia's withdrawal from the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference.

• The Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference has been meeting since 1991 and appears to be first significant geopolitical repercussion of Sweden and Finland's decision to formally apply for NATO membership.
• The BSPC was established to raise 'awareness and opinion on issues of current political interest and relevance for the Baltic Sea Region.'
• The response from Moscow has been limited so far. Finland's President Sauli Niinisto held a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly after the decision was taken on NATO. Niinisto: 'The discussion was straightforward and unambiguous and was held without exaggeration. Avoiding tensions was considered important.
• Earlier today at a CSTO meeting Putin said on Finland and Sweden joining Nato: 'Russia has no problem with those states. So there is no direct threat from expansion to those countries. But deploying military infrastructure will provoke a response [...] based on the threats they create for us.'