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Look at the map, the NATO doesn't have much land borders with Russia. With Finland joining... the length of land border will multiply. This will surely pose a challenge.
1: https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2021/10/p... 2: https://finland.fi/life-society/a-border-that-once-divided-n...
It's a fact that Russia feels threatened by having NATO on their border. It's a fact that Ukraine and Finland also share borders with Russia. It's a fact that Putin is not going to allow himself to be removed from power by the West without a fight (at this point it's a case of stay in power or get killed). Can the West not have a bit more nuance in its collective foreign policy, recognising these facts and that we're far from living in a perfect world with flowers and rainbows? The former USSR states in Eastern Europe have until now (or until the early 2000s NATO expansion at least) served as a half-decent buffer zone between the West and Russia, and it's served as a relatively stable diplomatic saddle point in keeping the peace.
EDIT: sigh, are we really just reddit these days, using downvotes to express disagreement? I'm not going to change my mind based on downvotes. Comment to tell me how I'm wrong.
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The Finnish political system was infiltrated by Russian assets (willing or just useful fools) for decades [0]. Luckily this has abated in the last decades. The people have deep suspicion of the Russian state but no particular animosity towards russian people in general. Most finns, especially the young generations, feel most affinity towards west in every sense. The Finnish language is Finno-Ugric and unrelated to sl…
>Most finns, especially the young generations, feel most affinity towards west in every sense. It's true that most finns feel affinity towards the west, but same can't be said about the USA. Especially the younger generation sees both Russia and US with somewhat strong dislike.
It's not like American TV shows aren't playing on Finish TV, or cinema hardly plays Hollywood movies.
If there was a true dislike, it should affect media consumption.
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There is much talk about Russia not wanting Finland in NATO but why would NATO want Finland in NATO with yet another expensive border to patrol. "Buffer states" work both ways.
I would argue that NATO already has to care about that border. Finland joining NATO just makes that reality easier to handle.
Has Finland significant pro-Russian politicians? Or at least pro before February 2022? I visited there a while ago and there was a feel of Russian friendliness at the least with significant independence on the streets. But that's just my feelings and I wasn't paying attention back then.
Maybe it was just friendliness towards Russian people? This war is entirely political. Most Russians don't seem to want to invade other countries.
This is true for basically every people every time in history. People care about food, family, a house, medical care. All is well until some government starts pushing them into a warring state of mind.
Examples from the previous generation of European wars, when Italy invented fascism, Germany followed suit ten years later and both countries started to think about land grabs in Europe and Africa. We got WW2 first but only 12 years after the end of it France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux started the process [1] that led to the current EU. All friends again.
My bet: without the current leadership and their propaganda very few Russians would think about invading other countries so be ready to reach out to them when it will be all over. What we don't have to do is to start a process like the one that led Germany from the defeat in WW1 to desires of revenge and WW2, or Russia from the defeat in the Cold War to the current attempt to create its empire again.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Community
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This more or less seals Finland applying for NATO membership. However, adding new members requires unanimous consent from all existing members, so it's not guaranteed to be smooth sailing. Russia is also obviously deeply unhappy about this and will do its best to disrupt the process via direct and indirect pressure.
How can Russia pressure and disrupt the process when NATO members are the ones most afraid of Putin? Finland's doing this only because of Russia's actions. I can't imagine anybody vetoing Finland's membership. In fact, the more the merrier^Hstronger.
Hungary is also a NATO member and yet its president (Mr. Orban) has been quite chummy with Putin.
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I mean there's that joke that the Apollo missions were the greatest scientific accomplishment by the Soviet Union.
That is rather apt. And mirroring Russian claims to disarm nazis in Ukraine and take over the government in 3 days. Only to get sanctioned into economic doom, and have Ukraine forever supplied with the teeth of all western nations. It did not work out so well. We are all rooting for spinal cancer.
Thanks in a dark sense Russia basically sealed the Ukrainian identity and possibly the nato. With Ukrainian blood and theirs.
How can a chess playing nation think so badly. Just bomb others to surrender … Mongolian blood?
Look at the map, the NATO doesn't have much land borders with Russia. With Finland joining... the length of land border will multiply. This will surely pose a challenge.
There is much talk about Russia not wanting Finland in NATO but why would NATO want Finland in NATO with yet another expensive border to patrol. "Buffer states" work both ways.
Invasion of Ukraine had not started in December 2021 yet, but it became urgent issue for Finnish President as it was seen that Finnish & Swedish NATO membership was being tied to Putin's war rhetoric at the time. Then came Finnish president's New Years remarks which was seen as a serious even in neighboring Sweden.
It's notable though that in Finland politicians have used wording "Nato-option" for decades, this conditioned the public to know what to expect if things turn sour. In Sweden NATO membership is a bit more difficult, because they didn't have such wording.
In Finland decision to joining NATO was mostly driven by sudden opinion change when war started. This opinion change was so radical that government didn't need to campaign for NATO, leadership could just focus on getting support from NATO members. Finnish and Swedish government have already negotiated with most of the NATO members so the application phase shouldn't be too hard.
Before war only ~20% favor, ~50-60% against
25.2. 53% in favor, 28% against
11.3. 62% in favor, 16% against
6.5. 76% in favor 12% against
See polling data from here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finland%E2%80%93NATO_relations