Yasmeen Serhan: Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have ushered into existence the thing he feared most: a stronger, expanded NATO. What do you make of his recent remarks that Russia has “no problem” with Finland and Sweden joining the Western alliance?

Anders Fogh Rasmussen: He has stated numerous times that he would react if NATO came closer to Russia’s borders—and now he’s got 1,300 kilometers [810 miles] more NATO border through the membership of Finland. So, of course, his comments are ridiculous. But he is in a situation where he cannot do anything. He is preoccupied elsewhere, mainly in Ukraine. So he has to accept the inevitable, namely that his attack on Ukraine has changed people’s minds in Finland and Sweden, and now they’re joining NATO. He wanted less NATO. He got more NATO.

Serhan: Speaking of borders, how worried are you about Russia’s ability to use Belarus, which some call Moscow’s vassal state, and its own Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad to encircle and virtually cut off Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia from the rest of NATO?

Rasmussen: That’s a major concern. The reality is that if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he won’t stop in Ukraine. The next goal would be Moldova, then Georgia, and finally the Baltic states. But that project has now been made much more complicated for him because, after the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, the Baltic Sea will now be a NATO sea. So the defense of the three Baltic states will be much easier and much more efficient now, and if we wish, we can block all entry and exit to Russia through St. Petersburg. So, for Russia, it’s a strategic defeat that Putin has provoked Finland and Sweden into joining NATO.