The leaders of Finland announced Thursday that they plan to apply to join NATO “without delay,” a move that will greatly escalate tensions between Helsinki and Moscow.
“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay,” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in a joint statement. “We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”
A few steps have to be taken before Finland formally applies, but NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has said repeatedly that the alliance would quickly approve Helsinki’s membership. Sweden is also eyeing a NATO membership and is expected to make a decision this week.
Both Finland and Sweden have received security guarantees from Britain on Wednesday should they come under attack during the potential NATO application period. Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said last week that Stockholm had received unspecific security “assurances” from the US for the application period.
Russia responded to the Finnish announcement by warning that it would take “military-technical” measures. “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps both of military-technical and of other nature in order to stop the threats to its national security that emerge as a result,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said, according to Tass.
“Yet history will decide why Finland should turn its territory into the frontier of a military standoff with the Russian Federation while losing its independence in making its own decisions,” the Russian Foreign Ministry added.
Finland shares an over 800-mile border with Russia, and Helskinki’s ascent into the alliance would more than double the amount of NATO territory bordering Russia. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who now serves as the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned in April that if Finland joins NATO, Russia would have to reinforce the border and hinted at potential nuclear deployments.
While Russia is unhappy with Finland’s decision and is warning it will respond, Medvedev said the situation is different than Ukraine’s NATO aspiration. “We don’t have territorial disputes with those countries like we do with Ukraine,” he said. “For that reason, the price of their membership for us is different.”
all russia has to do is aim some missiles at finland and problem solved.
But why stop there? They can then annex Finland by force because that is very antiwar. The Russian army can go a loot their cities and blame it on Azov Battalion.
After Russo-Finnish wars, there was a peace agreed by the adults on both sides back then. The children have taken over, and Russia must help them grow up. The hard way.
Yes, Russia is now force teaching, the hard way, its own children how to go and fight wars they don’t want to fight in first place.
Eeek, more like problems just beginning…
It is readily apparent that the memory of the evils of the U.S. have been stuffed down the memory hole. We have killed hundreds of thousands, displaced millions, interfered in elections (81), paid for coups (as well as provided the where with all to belligerents), continues to kill by drone, is conducting operations in Africa, threatened many countries with sanctions, use the IMF and the World Bank to keep lesser countries in line. Yet Russia, reacting badly to being surrounded, humiliated, is the most terrible monster the world has ever seen. Remember when Jeremiah Wright said, “G-d D*mn America” and was therefore vilified? A strange world we live in.
I have been thinking of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s words a lot lately. He was prophetic.
I have been thinking about Jeremiah Wright as well. Isn’t that bizarre? I even went onto Youtube and re-watched his sermon last week. It is worth the re-watch. The whole thing.
I loved Reverend Wright’s support of the Palestinian people.
God damn Amerikkka indeed.
The US crossed the line, it was always a monster hegemon, but it has become too lawless and the veil of hypocrisy and evil has been lifted. The world has changed, there are other great powers the PRC, India and Russia. They do have legitimate national interests the monster does not accept.
Arrogance and contempt for others is coming home with a bloody nose.
President Biden with all the years in politics has not even an ounce of diplomatic manners. He sees no need to show respect for his opponent.
Just like the collapse of the Congress of Vienna system in August 1914: collective security yields to everyone choosing sides and demanding war, then the carnage.
MAD nuke doctrine prevent the last step.
What we end up with is unbearable tension and pretexts for loss of economic security, traditional civil and human rights for ordinary Westerners.
The Congress of Vienna system began its collapse in 1848. It died in 1871. when Europe, fore the first time, became a collection of states with accepted borders which were immediately violated. That, not 1914, is when the modern history of Europe began.
I think it twitched on from 1871 to 1914.
Thanks for posting, Mary. A bit lengthy but definitely worth the listen.
Intelligent analysis with some blind spots.
Victoria Nuland’s infamous “F-# the EU” quote, too nicely exonerates the EU and condemns the US. Which was probably why it was leaked by ‘accident’.
The EU is always careful to cultivate an aura of innocent domination by the United States, but sometimes the mask slips.
Europe’s hegemonic oligarchs did not appreciate the US ‘leading’ them out of Afghanistan. When EU’s most powerful players weren’t whining against leaving, they were arrogantly proclaiming the US would leave only when NATO was ready for them to leave.
Nuland is a core neocon, another Soros agent working for Europe First, not America First. Soros is closely tied to the Maidan movement.
Also, that Ukrainian nationalism is racist; not intrinsically so.
There is a serious Nazi problem in Ukraine now, but Ukrainian nationalism should not be condemned to that fate.
The core sentiment of group identity is not going away. The US does not have a monopoly on patriotism defined by an Enlightened Bill of Rights.
Before 2014, many Ukrainians were nationalist but not necessarily neo Nazi about that. There was division and growing tension between those who wanted to be Western European Ukrainians and those who wanted to be Russian Ukrainians.
However, Nazism was still beyond the pale for most polite company.
Western civilization is based on universal civil and human rights values, as elucidated in the US Bill of Rights, UN Charter, and many Western constitutions (except Australia). Imperfectly followed, but still written fundamental law.
There was no way neo-Nazis could have built a popular Ukraine nationalism about themselves, any more than neo-Nazis could lead German nationalism. Ukrainians wanted freedom and prosperity, even the pro-Russian Ukrainians, who saw through Western pretensions and hoped Russia would be more genuine.
Nazism must die, and Ukrainian nationalism freed from its poison.
No, the social democrats. The social democrats in Finland too. They make sure to join the globalist alliance against conservative Russia now, without letting the people have their say. No referendum. Make sure to do it while the people have received daily doses of hate propaganda for months, and don’t wait until the Ukraine war is over and people can start thinking again.
Illuminating that neither government wanted their citizens to vote on question
European Social Democrats, which is what they indeed are, surrendered to funding hence openly supporting warfare in 1914 and have never recovered from that knee fall to mammon.
Mistake neutrality is a prize status.
If you can keep it…
And as soon as they are, Finland will cease to exist. Bye-bye, Finland. So who cares? As it is said, you can’t fix stupid. Russia has already told them what will happen – and Ukraine is showing them what will happen.
History repeating itself and it looks like America is playing the role of Nazi Germany
Russia isn’t going to invade Finland over NATO. Finland is not acting like Ukraine, hosting US WMD programs and threatening their Russian minority with ethnic cleansing.
If Ukraine had been in NATO, they couldn’t threaten Russia so freely either, as that would risk the entire NATO membership.
Neutrals next to Russia are potential proxy war platforms.
That’s like saying Finland announces the destruction of their country.
Surrender to the US/NATO borg is Finland announcing their surrender, neutral and independent no more.
Anything Russia does would be qualitatively redundant; Finland is destroyed.
It will not be accepted. Not everyone is throlled adding members to surroynd Rusdia.
Perhaps not popularly, but the Finland government already made clear they aren’t holding a referendum.
Sweden and Finland are hostage to their need for access to markets, particularly the American market.
They fear getting to close to China, because their only edge in the world is their lead in nano-chip printing technology.
China is too good at acquiring tech secrets. The only advantage to that was, at least China put more effort into copycatting foreign tech rather than innovating on their own.
The Nordics also historically don’t trust Russia, unlike the rest of the multilateral world that sees Russia as their guarantor of independence.
So, if the Euros convince the US to join them in making things tough for Nordic political-economic elites, the temptation to yield is very strong. And that’s just the above-board arm twisting.
There hasn’t been a significant murder of a Nordic politician since Anna Lindh, but the message was clear that Nordic independence was on a leash.
A ship of fools.
Same old story, it’s starting to become boring.
All Russia got is a HUGE pile of nukes and everytime Putin becomes upset and start crying, he threathens to use his nukes.
You can only cry wolf so many times, do you think Finland is going to back down and wait for the Russian army to invade them instead (once they repaired all their broken equipment and replaced all dead soldiers)?
They are not stupid, they know that as a NATO member they will be protected by American, British and French nukes.
Case closed and the clown in the Kremlin lost, again.
Now there won’t be any country left in Europe that Russia can invade, I can understand that Putin is really, really upset!
Seriously how old are you?
Aren’t you the ANALYZER?
What is he supposed to do? I guess he can always invade Georgia again, or any of the *stan countries in the east.
Because he will face a wall of NATO countries in Europe, so no more Russian aggressions on that continent ever again.
Those Navy sailors need to stop smoking so much.
Yes, I heard that the sailors of Moskva were smoking and drinking so much they hardly noticed that the old ship was sinking, ROFL.
Brand new auxiliary ship of Russian Navy suffered major fire in Black sea
Apparently a fire broke out during the night May 11-12, when she was under way, heading for the famous Snake island. Some or all of crew were evacuated, but the ship didn’t sink, instead she was towed back to Sevastopol.
VSEVOLOD BOBROV is a brand new Russian Navy auxiliary supply ship.
The ship is docked in Sevastopol, and reportedly in need of extensive repairs.
Russia has neither confirmed or rebuked the news. As with the frigate ADMIRAL MAKAROV, the story remains a mystery, so far. But most probably a major accident occured.
In total, Russian Navy losses in this conflict are appalling, taking into account the lack of a proper adversary – Ukraine doesn’t have Navy worth mentioning, virtually none at all, except some small boats.
Why are you so surprised? If a little paddle fishing boat almost sank the Cole and caused the death of 20 sailors, why is it surprising that Ukraine a country of 44 million has anti-ship missiles? Ditto for Argentina.
“almost sank the Cole”
Almost, Comrade, almost.
One would have thought that they learned their lesson after the disaster with the Moskva, but apparently not.
Poor Russian sailors…
this is really bad news
Slipping and sliding into World War III.
Hopefully its just a messy re-alignment.
The military forces of the two Donbas republics, together, in 2021 numbered just over 40.000 soldiers. One of the generally accepted rules of war is that when attacking you need the well known 3:1 ratio.
At the beginning of the SMO conflict, Kiev had deployed 125.000 troops in eastern Ukraine, close to half of its regular military forces. Russia preempted this attack by US/NATO and have started grinding down the core of this fighting force.
In the Donbas Moscow is fighting a war of attrition with US/NATO forces and they are winning.
finland is now under control of Amerika and citizens you’re going to hate it.
Obviously, Finland fears the U.S. and NATO more than she fears Russia.
I do hope the foolish Finns enjoy having multiple nuclear weapons lined up on the Russian side of their border, all prepared and ready to annihilate Helsinki if necessary.
Joining the EU always meant this day would come.
A nation state is integrated economically but also militarily, and Finland is valuable geopolitical real estate.
Finland’s extensive defense infrastructure, once dedicated to Finnish independence, is now a huge NATO infrastructure bonus that significantly increases NATO power.
Russia should just let this go. This is the inevitable Mackinderan tide of the times and Putin is playing King Canute trying to stop NATO from borging Finland.
Only Finlanders can save Finland now.
Finland could easily become another Ukraine outside NATO, a non-aligned proxy war zone.
Blocs are being defined for the Eurasian Century.
The only reason Finland exist is because of a peace treaty signed after Russia defeated Nazi Finland in WW2 that says it can’t join a military alliance, violating that, they’ll be att war with Russia who probably is going to mobilize soon. Russia has planned for all kinds of eventualities and they’re ready for this.
Finlands is also 100% dependent on Russian gas and oil and has no LNG terminals. Good luck with that. Nato has miscalculated this completely, again, they won’t do sh*t when Russia starts to eliminate this threat, Poles and the other Baltic prostitutes will take note.
In 1917 Finland was a province of the Tsarist empire. The February revolution of 1917 did not free Finland. However, one of the very first decrees of Lenin was to detach Finland from Russia and by recognizing its independence.
After WW2 Stalin got his territorial demands on Finland which had been the trigger for the Winter War. Hence, there is no reason why Putin would want to attack and annex Finland as long as it remains outside NATO.
The moment Finland formally applies for NATO membership it becomes a Russian target. Finland badly needs a new Mannerheim.
The main problem here is the Ukraine example.
Being in NATO prevents Finland from becoming a proxy war zone; whatever NATO weapons they eventually house there, can’t be used without dragging the entire alliance into conflict.
Being non-aligned invites being turned into a platform for proxy war with Russia.
Apart from that, the EU needs real estate for geopolitical weight.
It appears to already be a de facto member, which seems to be the trend.
The stupidity or corruption of politicians always seems to outdo itself. Who could possibly imagine it is in Finland’s interest to join NATO and have atomic weapons targeted at it.
Finland will be Russieland soon…!
Assuming that NATO would protect Finland if they were attacked, I wonder if Finland is truly prepared to send troops to Poland if they should be attacked.
This is less about mutual defense than greater EU-NATO integration.
The EU has always aspired to become a ‘United States of Europe’ and they need as much real estate as they can to be geopolitically relevant.
Nation-state arrangements need both economic and military integration.
A first problem is on the rise. President Erdogan of Turkey has stated that his nation is against the admission of Sweden and Finland to NATO.
Every educated Turkish person knows that Lenin’s government supported the struggle of Kemal Ataturk for an independent Turkey by undermining Sykes-Picot and giving arms to Kemal.
It should not matter what kind of ruler Erdogan is. What matters for NATO in situations like this is to prevent stupid moves which will enlarge the split. Given European history those stupid moves will happen. The first idiotic move? Most likely by Johnson of GB. The Brits and to a lesser extent the French are the champions of stupid moves in Anatolia and to its East.
In May, 1934, Poland signed a Non-Aggression Treaty with the USSR.
March 1939, England signs a treaty with Poland, guaranteeing the UK will
defend Poland against attack.
England states a strong Poland is essential for the security of Europe.
May 1939, Poland withdraws unilaterally from the 1934 Treaty, upon the 5yr renewal date.
September 1, 1939, Germany invades Poland, and WW2 begins.
In April, 1948, Finland signs a Peace Treaty with the USSR, both parties agreeing to non-aggression, including no alliances with other countries.
The Treaty stands for 74 years, with no violations. Neither party placed troops on its border.
In April, 2022, Finland withdraws unilaterally from the 1948 Treaty.
In May 2022, Finland applies to NATO for membership. Finland places troops on its border.
May 11, 2022, Johnson, PM of UK, signs a Declaration to defend Finland in the event of attack.
Johnson declares a strong Finland is essential for the security of Europe.
You have been warned.
You left a couple of items out of your handy-dandy timeline:
August 23, 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union sign the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact
September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invades Poland
November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union invades Finland
On the 30th September 1938 the Munich agreement was signed, under which Britain and France gave the Third Reich the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. “The Pact” about granting the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia to the Nazis was signed by Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, Germany’s Chancellor Adolf Hitler, and Prime Minister of Italy Benito Mussolini.
Of all participating countries of the League of Nations, only the Soviet Union in March 1938 tried to protest against the annexation of Austria, in the spring of 1939, Czechoslovakia was invaded by Nazi troops. The Soviet Union, which Czechoslovakia had a mutual assistance agreement with, was ready to intervene and requested from Poland to provide a corridor for the Soviet troops to defend Czechoslovakia from the Nazis.
Poland refused the Soviet Union the right of passage for the Soviet army, Poland even indicated they would immediately declare war on the USSR if she tried to send troops through Polish territory to aid Czechoslovakia. Instead of helping the Czechs, Poland invaded Czechoslovakia and captured the Cieszyn region. Poland divided Czechoslovakia with the Third Reich, in what was a preliminary agreement between the Polish Foreign Minister Jozef Beck and Foreign Minister of the Third Reich – Ribbentrop. The so-called “Covenant of Beck-Ribbentrop Pact”
The Soviet Union made tremendous efforts to put in place conditions for collective resistance to Nazism in Germany and made repeated attempts to create an anti-Nazi bloc in Europe. All of these attempts failed. After 1938, when the well-known agreement was concluded in Munich, conceding some regions of Czechoslovakia the writing was on the wall. This agreement made the war possible because of Germany, France, and the UK – the three signatories of the Munich agreement.
When the Soviet Union realised that it was left to face Hitler’s Germany on its own, it acted to try to avoid a direct confrontation, and this resulted in signing the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. The Molotov-Ribbentrop accord was signed on 23 August 1939. Three days later the German army was mobilised and nine days later Hitler attacked Poland. Many historians believe the Molotov-Ribbentrop deal allowed Hitler to start war as he knew he would not have to face the Soviet Union.
The Nazi concentration camps that followed were little more than forced slave labour resources for the rich Western industrialists who funded Hitler throughout the war. It turns out that capitalist ideology was Nazism, it always was, and this is spelled out very clearly in the new fascist Ukraine.
Dear Doom, could You please upload a picture of some kind on Your Disqus profile. I would like to share Your comments on other platforms and make them look a bit more noticeable.
My comments on pretty much all Western platforms have been banned. The powers that be have gone to great lengths to ensure i am not noticeable, assassination or prison awaits those who buck the system to hard.
Your comments are visible on Twitter and FB shared with disqus standard tools.
Mind boggling. For 70 years they had a peaceful border. They know that Russia invaded because their only naval base in Sevastopol was sure to be taken over by NATO. So all they are doing now is posturing for the Finnish masses.
The poor lad fails to note that NATO is now irrelevant. The reason NATO is not joining the fight in Ukraine to confront Russia is not because Ukraine is not a NATO member. It is because the gas station has nukes AND they have threatened to use them. It is the secret that was obvious but nobody wanted to talk about it from McCain to the most hawkish neocon.
So what has Niinisto gained with this bold move?
– 800 miles of confrontation
– a few nukes a stone throw from their border
– being the first line of defense as NATO continues their aggressive moves against Russia (which they definitely will continue)
– they will carry the most burden while the Anglophones pull the strings from far away.
It is firmly proven that NATO cannot prevent an economic collapse in NATO-land. Since Russia is not going to attack Finland the Finns are deceiving themselves about their security. By joining NATO that will not increase and I wonder whether the Finns know that there is no exit from NATO.
They need a unanimous 30 votes. So far, they have a veto from one, and another already likely (Turkey and Hungary).
There are more fence sitters, who are keeping their heads down now, but who don’t want to guarantee more trouble with Russia.
This is the crucial detail almost unnoticed in the information tsunami. Europe/NATO is far, far from being unified in support of the US/Neocon proxy war on Russia. Europe will suffer the most — and is already suffering significantly — if this shitshow escalates. Some NATO member, perhaps several, will — I pray — refuse Finland’s application to NATO, which should start the movement away from support for the proxy war and toward a diplomatic solution.
Turkey in particular, while a member of NATO, has long since given up any hope of being treated with respect by Europe. Erdogan sees Turkey’s future as a bridge unifying Eurasia and Western Europe.
Isn’t this happening as a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Public opinion in Finland swung form 20% pro NATO to 70% pro NATO in a month. How did the Yanquis pull that off?