The Nordic nation's recent NATO membership could spell catastrophe, Sakari Linden has told RT

Finland's decision to abandon neutrality and join NATO could prove catastrophic, as it risks turning the country into a battlefield in a potential conflict with Russia, former EU Parliament adviser Sakari Linden has warned.

Linden spoke to RT on Thursday, on the sidelines of the International Arctic Forum in Murmansk.

Finland has an almost 1,300-kilometer-long border with Russia, and officially joined the US-led military bloc in April 2023 following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict.

By joining NATO, Finland "abandoned decades of neutrality," which had provided the country with independence, prosperity, and security, Linden said.

"Every time in history when Finland becomes very aligned with... Western powers," it becomes, in Linden's words, "some kind of natural resources reservoir of the West."

The country then loses its independence and "risks becoming a battlefield against Russia," he warned.

Linden said Finland's position between East and West gives it "geopolitical balance," and that it benefits most from acting as a trade bridge between Russia and the EU.

The former EU adviser further noted that during the Cold War, Finland was a "neutral" country that traded with both the West and the East. He said that it has often been the West that sought to restrict Finland's trade with Russia, while "Russia has never forbidden Finland" from trading with the West.

Now that Finland has totally aligned with Western powers in foreign and security policy - which Linden said "want to put pressure on Russia" - Helsinki is the one bearing the "burden of all the security risks."

Since joining the US-led bloc, the Finnish government has embarked on a militarization push, including expanding military training and urging the population to prepare for a possible war with Russia.

NATO's eastern members have long declared Russia to be a direct threat, and Western officials have repeatedly claimed that if Moscow wins the Ukraine conflict, it could target other European countries.

READ MORE: Moscow accuses EU state's leaders of 'whipping up war psychosis'

Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed any possibility of a military advance against NATO as "nonsense," arguing that the supposed threat of a Russian attack is being used by European politicians to scare their citizens to extract more resources from them and justify increased military spending.

At the same time, Russia has repeatedly warned against what it describes as NATO's unprecedented military activity near its western borders in recent years.