Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to overthrow the Ukrainian government has spurred Finland into the fast lane to join NATO in defiance of Russian threats and Kremlin pressure to force a practical contraction of the trans-Atlantic alliance.
“Finland — with a quite great, big probability — will give [an] application for NATO, and then Sweden can follow,” a senior European diplomat told the Washington Examiner. “Finland is ahead. Sweden is not — their discussions are a little bit lagging behind.”
“In this new situation and changed security environment, also we’ll have to evaluate all means to guarantee the safety of Finland and Finns,“ Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said last week. “We’ll have to seriously mull over our own stance and approach to military alignment. We’ll have to do this carefully but quickly, effectively during the course of this spring.”
Finland fought off a Soviet invasion in 1939 and remained neutral during the Cold War. The memory of that conflict inspired the Finnish people, a nation of 5.5 million, to develop a sophisticated strategy of “comprehensive security” ranging from stockpiles of fuel and medicine to a military with 900,000 reservists prepared to fend off any future Russian invasion.
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