Posted on 04/04/2023 7:42:11 AM PDT by Twotone
BRUSSELS (AP) — The blue-and-white Finnish flag rises outside NATO headquarters Tuesday afternoon, making Finland a member and doubling Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance.
The move is a strategic and political blow to President Vladimir Putin, who has long complained about NATO’s expansion toward Russia and partly used that as a justification for his country’s war with Ukraine.
“What we see is that President Putin went to war against Ukraine with a declared aim to get less NATO,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. “He’s getting the exact opposite.”
Like all NATO members, Finland will benefit from the collective security guarantee that an attack on one is considered an attack on all.
NATO has said that it has no immediate intention to step up its presence in Finland. Some members have deployed troops there for war games over the last year.
Russia immediately warned that it would bolster forces near Finland if NATO sends any additional troops or equipment to what will be its 31st member country
Finland has substantial, well-trained armed forces with elite troops capable of operating in the sub-zero temperatures of the high north. The Nordic country also has a large reserve army and is investing heavily in new equipment, including dozens of U.S.-made F-35 fighter jets.
The Finnish flag rising between the French and the Estonian in a ceremony scheduled for 1330 GMT will complete the fastest accession process in the organization’s recent history .
Alarmed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland applied to join NATO in May 2022. Neighboring Sweden also applied, but its accession process will take longer.
The ceremony falls on NATO’s very own birthday, the 74th anniversary of the signing of its founding Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
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Very good and interesting points. But the players are realigned and modernized. Finland is certainly the strongest they have ever been. The Soviet Union (Russia) doesn’t have the US as an ally. Nearly all of Western Europe is on the same side (with varying levels of convictions, e.g., Austria).
“I don’t think the Russians are afraid of Finland”
They should be. Just ask Simo Hayha.
CC
Russia is.
The clowns need an excuse to ramp up finance.
“I don’t think the Russians are afraid of Finland.”
Yes they are. That’s why they’re threatening Finland today.
And yet the Finns still lost the war and conceded territory to Russia. The Finns “handed them their ass” much like the Confederacy handed the the Union their ass...killed more men but still strategically lost.
Keep dreaming. Xi visited Russia for three days and gave Putin nothing. No weapons. No reassurances. No kind words. Poooty Poot Putin was peeved.
In the Russ-Chinese relationship, Xi has the whip hand over your mongrel dog Putin. It’s fun to watch this play out.
This relationship was more equal before Putin started wasting Russian resources on his stupid war on Ukraine.
“”Russia has no intention of attacking Finland. And Biden/our Military knows it.””
Finland obviously disagrees with you, and they should know.
This is a provocative move at the direction of the Biden Administration. Psyops.
Finland and Sweden seeking to join NATO only reveal what the people most knowledgeable about the Russian threat think of it.
Look at Russia’s victims for insight into what they are, and pay attention to the people that live with them, next to them, who have been invaded by them, who live under constant threat from them.
The Confederacy ceased to exist.
Finland continues to exist when the USSR’s original plan during the Winter War was to conquer them. Finland won the right to continue to be a sovereign country.
Carry on western war cheerleaders, you are sealing the West’s fate.
Russia collapsed twice in the 20th century. Russia’s fate was sealed long ago.
Certainly. Now that Finland has dumped "Immature Party Girl" they aren't much of threat to anybody.
—> Keep dreaming. Xi visited Russia for three days and gave Putin nothing
Which you do not know, yet exert as if you were in the room.
—->Poooty Poot Putin
Dennis comes out as gay ahead of pride month! Stunning and brave!
That’s exactly what Russia needs. They are a demographic nightmare. They need a lot more people.
You are the clown who is up Poooty Poot Putin’s. Every day here. So go stifle yer self.
I am only against the globohomopedo neocons you are supporting.
Every day I point out the humor and silliness of Zeepers who are being killed see, but can’t see it yet.
What good is NATO if China attacks the US? Anyone think Finland or even Germany will protect the US?
NATO is the equivalent of The Maginot Line.
Finland was ruled by the Russians for a century before the Russian Revolution, which gave the Finns an opportunity to achieve independence for the first time in centuries. (Prior to Russian rule, Finland had been ruled by Sweden for several hundred years.) Millions of Ukrainians were starved to death in the Holodomor of the 1930s. In perspective, it was the Ukrainian equivalent to the Holocaust or the Potato Famine.
The Baltic States were under the Tsarist and later the Communist thumb except for a short independent period from 1919 to 1940. These nations were subject to brutal executions and deportations under Stalin, who tried to Russify these countries.
As for Poland, that nation suffered under Russian, German, and Austrian oppression for over a century, followed by genocidal Nazis and brutal Communists over a fifty year period from 1939 to 1989. Stalin took eastern Poland, compensating Poland by giving them formerly German Pomerania and Silesia.
At the end of World War II, Romania lost Moldova, which is ethnically Romanian, to the USSR.
Russia's western neighbors have plenty of reasons to fear and hate that nation. Even Sweden, which stayed out of both World Wars and the Cold War, wants to join NATO.
“The Russian Federation controls most of the pro-Russian areas.”
Was the price in blood worth that objective?
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