Posted on 05/12/2022 6:36:55 AM PDT by Cronos
Russia has warned that it will have to take “military-technical” steps in response to Finland’s application to join Nato.
The foreign ministry accused the military alliance of seeking to create “another flank for the military threat to our country”.
“Helsinki should be aware of its responsibility and the consequences of such a move,” the ministry added.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The expansion of Nato and the approach of the alliance to our borders does not make the world and our continent more stable and secure”.
When asked whether Finland’s accession to the military alliance would be considered a threat toward Russia, Peskov answered: “Definitely”.
Earlier on Thursday, Finnish leaders said they were in favour of joining Nato and a formal decision would be made this weekend.
Finland, which shares an 810 mile border and a difficult past with Russia, has gradually stepped up its cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a partner since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Not fast enough on the expansion. Countries in Europe need to almost go to “total war” footing to catch up.
“total war footing” - meaning what according to you?
and “to catch up” — you mean to “catch up” with Russia? Russia is the one that is 4 decades behind - their equipment is old, and badly maintained and falling apart.
I think the Swedes and Finns were shocked themselves with how quickly they see the need to change
Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy threatens Sweden and Finland: "As soon as Finland and Sweden become members of NATO and military units of the alliance are there, these territories will become a possible target for the Russian military"
Putin’s number one “go-to” strategy of his playbook when he does not get his way in geopolitical hostile conflicts is to level threats of nuclear war.
and through all this, what did NATO and the rest of the free world do? NOTHING!
The west caved in to Putin’s innuendos or express threats of nuclear war. Putin got his way and looked like a powerful leader to the world and especially his followers. He won!
But hubris catches up with you - and on Thursday, February 2, 2022 Putin made the colossal miscalculation of invading Ukraine. Surprising the world, Ukrainians under the leadership of Volodymyr Zelensky mounted a historical defense, pushed back the Russian armies and saved their capital city, Kyiv, and most of the temporarily occupied zones.
The Ukrainians fought back and we realized that the emperor has no clothes.
Given the dismal performance of the Russian armies against the Ukrainian army due to a myriad of reasons, many of which are not quickly resolvable, namely corruption, mismanagement, lack of advanced computer chips, military and strategic obsolescence, Russia is a third rate power at best.
Bookmark
The Continuation War, also known as the Second Soviet-Finnish War, was a conflict fought by Finland and Nazi Germany against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944, as part of World War II. In Soviet historiography, the war was called the Finnish Front of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its overall war efforts on the Eastern Front and provided Finland with critical material support and military assistance, including economic aid.
The Continuation War began 15 months after the end of the Winter War, also fought between Finland and the USSR. Numerous reasons have been proposed for the Finnish decision to invade, with regaining territory lost during the Winter War being regarded as the most common. Other justifications for the conflict included Finnish President Risto Ryti’s vision of a Greater Finland and Commander-in-Chief Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim’s desire to annex East Karelia. Plans for the attack were developed jointly between the Wehrmacht and a faction of Finnish political and military leaders, with the rest of the government remaining ignorant. Despite the co-operation in the conflict, Finland never formally signed the Tripartite Pact, though it did sign the Anti-Comintern Pact. Finnish leadership justified its alliance with Germany as self-defence.
On 22 June 1941, Germany launched an invasion of the Soviet Union. Three days later, the Soviet Union conducted an air raid on Finnish cities, prompting Finland to declare war and allow German troops stationed in Finland to begin offensive warfare. By September 1941, Finland had regained its post–Winter War concessions to the Soviet Union: the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia. However, the Finnish Army continued the offensive past the pre-1939 border during the conquest of East Karelia, including Petrozavodsk, and halted only around 30–32 km (19–20 mi) from the centre of Leningrad. It participated in besieging the city by cutting the northern supply routes and by digging in until 1944.
In Lapland, joint German-Finnish forces failed to capture Murmansk or to cut the Kirov (Murmansk) Railway, a transit route for Soviet lend-lease equipment. The conflict stabilised with only minor skirmishes until the tide of the war turned against the Germans and the Soviet strategic Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive occurred in June 1944. The attack drove the Finns from most of the territories that they had gained during the war, but the Finnish Army halted the offensive in August 1944.
Hostilities between Finland and the USSR ended with a ceasefire, which was called on 5 September 1944, formalised by the signing of the Moscow Armistice on 19 September 1944. One of the conditions of this agreement was the expulsion, or disarming, of any German troops in Finnish territory, leading to the Lapland War between Finland and Germany.
World War II was concluded formally for Finland and the minor Axis powers with the signing of the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947. This confirmed the territorial provisions of the 1944 armistice: the restoration of borders per the 1940 Moscow Peace Treaty, the ceding of the municipality of Petsamo (Russian: Пе́ченгский райо́н, Pechengsky raion) and the leasing of Porkkala Peninsula to the Soviets. Furthermore, Finland was required to pay US$300 million in war reparations to the Soviet Union, accept partial responsibility for the war and to acknowledge that it had been a German ally.
Casualties were 63,200 Finns and 23,200 Germans dead or missing during the war and 158,000 Finns and 60,400 Germans wounded. Estimates of dead or missing Soviets range from 250,000 to 305,000, and 575,000 have been estimated to have been wounded or fallen sick.
They tried that in the Continuation War teaming up with Hitler, but it failed. See post #245.
Hours after Moscow warned there would be retaliation for Helsinki’s announcement that it is applying for NATO membership, Finnish media reports that the Kremlin threatened to cut the country off from Russian gas by Friday.
Between 60% and 70% of Finland’s natural gas comes from Russia, though the country’s main sources of energy are oil, biomass and nuclear power, with natural gas representing only 5% of the total consumption. According to the Finnish government, renewable energy surpassed fossil fuels and peat in total energy consumption in 2020, leaving the country less dependent on Russian energy sources.
Joining NATO means the US guarantees your sovereignty up to and including nuclear war. Good deal for the Finns, not so much for us.
I know what we should do. Let’s get every country surrounding Russia including China to join NATO.
That would really be on our best interest and guarantee nuclear war (sarcasm).
scott adams was interesting for a while.
I do think he himself suffered cognitive dissonance (and put it on full display) over having gotten vaxxed. we have a large % of the country that is or may have to struggle with the same thing. it would be funny if not so terribly serious.
you saw the Illbert cartoon by Mr. Garrison? Scott actually retweeted then *fact checked* it. (the cartoon was genius, imo. garrison may have been a dilbert fan for a long time)
No, I'll have to find it.
https://grrrgraphics.com/illbert-a-parody/
garrison’s own site, i had just googled up any link last post
Brutal. Also brutal - his soon-to-be former wife's monologue on Scott's reaction to her diagnosis. Cringeworthy.
I'll post the link if you haven't seen it, or even care.
Listened to him for the first time in many months, just to hear what he thought of 2000 Mules.
Equivocating, as always. Well, bye, Clott.
at the bottom of garrison’s page is scott’s fact-check of the parody cartoon. i don’t think scott realizes he became the joke himself when he did that.
will look at your link - thanks
well, there are enough tells of a marriage that isn’t working there and apparently other places based on the comments. given the mess i made of my own life it is hard to say he still hasn’t managed to come out of it better (relative to how he was at start of marriage) than me. i have no room to criticize at all.
Buy UNG.
Learned a lot from him, but it was time to move on.
Ukrainian Natural Gas?
That’s a lot of military service for the Finns. But they do such a good job with the snowy forest camouflage I wonder why they don’t go all the way with their gloves, belts, rifles, etc., as well.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.