As the North Atlantic Alliance wraps up its massive Nordic Response 24 war drills, Russian President Vladimir Putin is threatening to deploy troops and weapons systems alongside his country’s shared 800-mile border with Finland.
This comes amid a rash of hostile rhetoric in NATO capitals about sending alliance troops to Ukraine as Kiev’s war effort is failing, including from heads of state such as French President Emmanuel Macron. Helsinki recently joined NATO and Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo is talking up increased military spending aimed at Russia.
On Wednesday, in an interview with Russian state media, Putin said the decision by Stockholm and Helsinki to join NATO in the wake of Moscow’s invasion and the US-led alliance’s proxy war was an “absolutely senseless step from the point of view of ensuring their own national interests.”
He continued, “We generally had ideal relations with Finland. Simply perfect. We did not have a single claim against each other, especially territorial, not to mention other areas. We didn’t even have troops; we removed all the troops from there, from the Russian-Finnish border.”
The Russian leader went on to conclude, “However, it is up to them to decide. That’s what they decided. But we didn’t have troops there, now we will.”
The NATO alliance is currently carrying out major war games in Finland, Sweden, and Norway with 20,000 troops from 13 countries, fifty naval vessels, and 100 warplanes. At the same time, Orpo is warning the Kremlin is preparing for a “long conflict with the West.” Speaking to the European Parliament, the Finnish leader implored member states to increase military spending and coordinate against Russia.
“[Russia] represents a permanent and essential military threat to Europe… If we, as a united Europe, fail to respond sufficiently to this challenge, the coming years will be filled with danger and the looming threat of attack,” Orpo said.
“Russia is not invincible,” he then declared. Orpo added that the European Union must be responsible for its own defense and not be held hostage by American elections, suggesting Republican front-runner Donald Trump would not be as supportive of the Washington-led military bloc.
Denmark, a founding member of NATO, announced on Wednesday that it would be boosting its military budget by nearly $6 billion over the next five years. Al Jazeera reported, “The increased funding will be used both to boost Denmark’s military capacity and provide aid to Ukraine. It will also go towards an expansion of conscription, which will be extended from four to 11 months and will include women for the first time.”
As Ukraine enters the third year of its war with Russia, it has lost 20% of its territory and depleted its stocks of ammunition, artillery, air defenses, and other equipment. Kiev also relies on a conscription regime to fill its ranks, but the Ukrainian military is facing a substantial manpower shortage, roughly half a million troops have been killed or seriously wounded. The average age of a soldier is now at least 43.
CNN reported this week that a NATO intelligence assessment reveals Russia’s production of artillery is three times the capacity of the entire NATO alliance. Efforts to “weaken” Russia’s military and economic strength have failed. EUROCOM chief and Supreme Allied Commander of NATO General Christopher Cavoli explained to Congress last year, Russia’s navy and air force have only taken negligible losses and its ground forces are “bigger today” than when the war began.
In the meantime, London is supplying Ukraine with 10,000 drones. Kiev is using such weapons to target multiple regions in Russia leading up to the country’s presidential election just days away.
Washington announced a $300 million military aid package for Kiev this week which includes cluster bombs, banned by more than 100 countries. These weapons are notorious because they spread large numbers of small submunitions or bomblets across a target area which do not all explode on impact, they can maim and kill civilians for years and decades after a war has ended.
Connor Freeman is the assistant editor and a writer at the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on the Conflicts of Interest podcast. His writing has been featured in media outlets such as Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, and the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. He has also appeared on Liberty Weekly, Around the Empire, and Parallax Views. You can follow him on Twitter @FreemansMind96.
If Russia also uses cluster munitions, I guess that’s not as big of a deal.
Putin is a nationalistic thug, with a proven track record of ruthless thuggery. His nation is besieged and threatened by globalist thugs, led by the US: with a track record that is indistinguishable as to policy and effects. Moral equivalency? I think so. YMMV.
Two evil heads of the same beast
Looks like we’re entering the end game of this clusterfuck hatched by Joe Biden and associates.
My disgust with the “policies” of this administration continues to deepen with every passing day.
The half plate of sh*t as predicted by Nina Turner. The other half is the Orange Man.
How much is Putin paying you, Freeman?
Please point out the parts of this article that shows Freeman’s bias. Or is that just your standard comment to whomever is writing an article on the Ukraine/Russia war that doesn’t follow the US’ MSM propaganda line?
How much is Zelenskyy paying you?
I wish we were getting paid. Just a couple of days ago I got some tax related documents from my orthodox church for last year’s tithe – when they handed me the envelope, I thought it was my vig.
🙂
At some point, you’ve got to say, “you can’t fix stupid.”
That’s been in the cards for a long time. Russia already announced a new Military District there long ago. As I’ve said for almost a year, Russia is building a new “Iron Curtain 2.0” from the Black Sea to the Arctic which will guarantee that the West can’t attack Russia without using nuclear missiles. Russia has been invaded by the West multiple times over the past couple centuries and it’s decided “enough is enough.”
Russia is pretty open with its immigration policy. So, millions of Germans and French could just walk right in to work and pay taxes.
The iron carpet (welcome mat). If only Hitler and Napoleon had thought of this!
“This comes amid a rash of hostile rhetoric in NATO capitals…”
Yep. Even Marine Le Pen gets it:
“Meanwhile, far-right pro-Russian politician Marine Le Pen, who is a member of the French National Assembly, unexpectedly announced that the aggressor country of the Russian Federation provoked the “most dramatic” crisis in the last 20 years with its attack on Ukraine.”
“By invading Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russia provoked a war on the doorstep of the EU and a geopolitical crisis that is undoubtedly the most dramatic in the last 20 years. We express respect and support to the Ukrainian people who are under attack,” she said.
https://ukrainetoday.org/french-politicians-supported-ukraine-attal-spoke-in-ukrainian-and-le-pen-unexpectedly-changed-her-rhetoric-video/
But there’s never any hostile rhetoric in Moscow.
https://www.youtube.com/@russianmediamonitor/videos
Finland in their alcoholic haze thought that joining NATO and giving up on years of neutrality would end in a win!
Now they are subject to incineration by large nuclear weapons if they become the mouse that roared!
Another country that Joey Biden destabilized. FJB!
France All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go
https://www.indianpunchline.com/france-all-dressed-up-and-nowhere-to-go/
MK Bhadrakumar
“Today, the paradox is, then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had proposed way back in 2008 a legally binding pan-European security treaty, which would have developed a new security architecture in Europe, involving the reshaping of existing and creating new institutions and norms regulating security relations in Europe in a wider geopolitical space stretching east “from Vancouver to Vladivostok.” But, alas, the US encouraged the Europeans to see the so-called ‘Medvedev Initiative’ as a trap to enfeeble NATO, the OSCE, the EU, and other European bodies, and reject that wonderful idea which would have anchored the post-cold War era firmly on a binding security architecture.”
The raison d’être for NATO and the Western arms complex would have been negated and Western economists envisioned societal, economic, and financial collapse. Peace discussions might have developed and lives saved since that fateful initiative was proffered.