Finnish President Alexander Stubb has a message to European partners amid growing warnings of further Russian escalation: Keep calm and carry on.
In recent days, top European officials have ever-more-loudly sounded the alarm about intensifying Russian hybrid warfare, with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warning that Moscow could send drones or missiles into the territory of NATO countries supporting Ukraine in “the next few months.” The head of the Czech security service warned that Russia could undertake “a limited incursion, false-flag provocations, a massive influence campaign” in a matter of “months, not years.”
Yet Stubb has a different message. Although he acknowledges that Europe needs to prepare for “continued hybrid and sabotage attacks” by Russia, the Finnish president warns that Europe shouldn’t “overreact,” as Moscow to scare allies into slowing down support for Ukraine.
“We have to be very careful and understand that Russia is trying to destabilize and scare Europe. And any time we overreact to a hybrid attack, they have actually won the battle in that particular way,” Stubb told POLITICO during an interview on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
“We also have to understand that it is not in the interest of Russia nor in the capacity of Russia to go full-scale” with military escalation, Stubb added. “So they will continue to intimidate and we just have to be, as I say, cool, calm and collected in this situation.” Läs artikel