Russia Lays Claim to Part of 'NATO Lake'

The Flag of Finland flies in front of the NATO Headquarters on April 4, 2023 in Brussels, Belgium. Finland has responded to a decree by Russia seeking to change its Baltic Sea maritime border.

Russian President Vladimir Putin intends to gain control of the Baltic Sea, which has been dubbed a "NATO lake," Sweden's top soldier has warned. This follows a move by Russia to change its maritime border with Lithuania and Finland.

Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces Micael Byden made the comments after a Russian Defense Ministry document posted online showed Moscow's intentions for the Baltic region, where tensions are high following the recent NATO accessions of Finland and Sweden, and GPS jamming blamed on Moscow.

Byden told the German network RND he was confident that Putin has "both eyes on Gotland," referring to the strategically important Swedish island.

"Putin's goal is to gain control of the Baltic Sea," he said. "Who controls Gotland controls the Baltic Sea."

Gotland, around 200 miles north of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, is Sweden's largest island and its seizure by Moscow could threaten NATO countries from the sea. This could end "peace and stability in the Nordic and Baltic regions," Byden said, "the Baltic Sea should not turn into Putin's playground."

The document, dated May 21, suggests Moscow wants to declare part of the waters in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland on its border with Lithuania and the area near the towns of Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk in the Kaliningrad region as internal waters.

Russia claims that previous geographic coordinates were registered relying on small-scale marine navigation maps based on 20th-century research that do not properly reflect the region's maritime borders.

But Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen posted on X, formerly Twitter, that the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea contains provisions on the definition of maritime zones of coastal states and that "we assume that Russia, as a party to the Convention, will act accordingly."

"It should be remembered that causing confusion is also a hybrid influence. Finland will not be confused," the post added.

Charly Salonius-Pasternak, leading researcher at the Finnish Institute for International Affairs (FIIA) told Newsweek the security situation has not worsened in the region, but Moscow was sending a clear signal.

"There is a Finnish saying, 'if you're being provoked, don't be provoked' but it is very serious," he said. "It is quite clearly calibrated to seem like a small, almost technically administrative thing, when in practice, its political repercussions are very serious.

"It is completely immaterial that the border adjustments are only squares of meters, it's the principle of a country saying unilaterally, we are just going to change borders, it is obviously not acceptable."

"I genuinely believe that it is important for NATO to do some sort of physical action and not just respond with a statement," he said, suggesting a freedom of navigation operation would send a more direct message.

"I think we need to do that because if we just respond with a strongly worded statement, the Kremlin is likely to read it as we are not really ready to stand up to yet another provocation, this one having to do with the changing of borders," Salonius-Pasternak said.

"That's my concern if we don't do something unambiguous," he added.

The Russian envoy to Vilnius has been summoned and the Lithuanian foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday Moscow's move is "further proof that Russia's aggressive and revisionist policy is a threat to the security of neighboring countries and Europe."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian, Finnish and Lithuanian foreign ministries, as well as NATO, for comment.

Along with Finland, Sweden joined NATO, having been spurred by the regional security risk posed by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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