“Links of the same chain”: the most reckless steps of Finnish Russophobes

Since the beginning of the special operation in Ukraine, Finland has been actively seeking NATO membership. After long negotiations, the country received an official invitation to the Alliance and is now waiting for the approval of the parliaments of the other participating countries. And on August 23, the local opposition called for a NATO base in Finland. The experts told REN TVthat such an unfriendly step could significantly worsen or even freeze relations between Moscow and Helsinki. Read about how Russophobia becomes “part of the Finnish mainstream” in our material.

Russophobia as part of the mainstream

Political scientist Aleksey Kochetkov noted that the appeals of the Finnish opposition once again show that Russophobia is becoming part of the all-Finnish mainstream.

“It’s not a fact that this decision will be made by the ruling coalition. But the proposal itself shows that the anti-Russian position and Russophobia are becoming part of the Finnish mainstream. The ruling party and the opposition are trying to outdo each other, who will come up with a more anti-Russian proposal,” – said an international expert in an interview with REN TV.

According to him, this is not the first ill-considered and unfriendly action on the part of Finland, and, of course, it will negatively affect relations between the countries.

“The first (unfriendly step. – Note REN TV) is the very decision to join NATO. Finland has long lost its neutral status, and now it takes an anti-Russian position. The second is the proposal to ban Russian citizens from entering the EU, which Finland supported. The Baltics came up with such an initiative, and the usually restrained Finns supported it,” the political scientist said.

He again stressed that the mood in Finnish society is becoming more and more Russophobic. Nationalists are speaking out more and more frankly from revanchist positions, voices about the need to revise the results of the Second World War are getting louder and louder.

“All these are links of the same chain. And, of course, everything will lead to the fact that Russian-Finnish relations will be frozen in the near future. Maybe it would be right – such actions must be responded to in advance,” – says Kochetkov.

“The deployment of NATO bases is a matter of time”

Political scientist Dmitry Solonnikov is convinced that the deployment of NATO bases in Finland is only a matter of time.

“Finland will join NATO, and, no doubt, both NATO bases and NATO troops will be located on its territory. The question of speed is how quickly this will happen, but this is not a short-term prospect”he said in an interview with REN TV.

“A question to the leadership of our country, which initially said that Russia could terminate the agreement (on the lease of the border Saimaa Canal. – Note by REN TV), given that Finland is no longer a neutral friendly country, but a member of the bloc, which considers Russia the main adversary. If Russia at one time helped Finland in connection with the inland lakes with the sea, now it will be the road along which the NATO member country will arm itself against Russia,” – says the expert.

“The consequences will be irreversible”

Finnish journalist Kosti Heiskanen told REN TVthat the actions of the country’s authorities are dictated by Brussels, the United States, Britain and Ukraine.

“Today, a video conference” Crimean Summit “was held between the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö and the President of Ukraine Zelensky. NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg also participated in it. And the fact that the President of Finland assured Zelensky that Finland would continue to send military assistance to Ukraine, provide financial and economic support, says that Finland absolutely does not want to listen to any aspects from Moscow and is set for confrontation,” – says the expert.

In his opinion, the recent statements of the local opposition do not bring anything new into the political picture of Finland.

“The fact that Kai Myukkyanen wants to set up a base in Finland is a message that Moscow is looking at what is happening quite calmly. So far there have been no strong reactions from Moscow, but after all these statements, one can expect that the consequences will be irreversible. moreover, Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who gets from scandal to scandal, also said that the Russians should stop issuing visas and the Russian economy should be destroyed,” Heiskanen said.

The journalist said that Finnish society is now being torn in half – tension and hatred towards the current government is growing. Sanna Marin does not want to have a dialogue with Russia, and this makes people very angry, because they are tired of the energy crisis that has gripped Europe. Heiskanen believes that the Finnish prime minister will soon be forced to leave her post.

“Russian-Finnish relations are now at the worst level in their history. Finland and Russia have always been able to negotiate despite some problems. What is happening in Finland now defies any explanation. Of course, everything is dictated by the United States and from Brussels, but it seems that Finnish politicians are completely blind and do not see any prospects for a normal dialogue with Russia. And ordinary people suffer from this, ” – emphasized the expert.

Calls from the Finnish opposition

Finland’s major opposition party on August 23 called for the deployment of NATO bases in the country.

“We must strongly promote a solution where permanent NATO multinational functions, such as a regional command center or a center of excellence for the Arctic region, could be located in Finland,” party chairman Kai Mykkänen said.

Politician emphasizedthat Finland “should become a key player in NATO.” He suggested opening a command center or an Alliance Center of Excellence throughout the country, as well as extending conscription to women.

Recall that back in early July, the authorities of Finland offered place a NATO base near the border with Russia. For this purpose, the authorities of the city of Lappeenranta in the province of South Karelia have proposed a local airport.

“It’s definitely available if the military wants it,” – said the mayor of the city Kimmo Järva.

He added that they started discussing the creation of an Alliance base in the city at the same time that Finland started talking about joining NATO.

How Helsinki sought an invitation to the Alliance

Against the backdrop of a special operation in Ukraine, Finland and Sweden declared about the desire to join the North Atlantic bloc. In May 2022, they submitted applications, but in order to be accepted, the support of all 30 NATO member countries was needed. Turkey protested, saying that Stockholm and Helsinki were harboring members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Ankara considers terrorist.

During the NATO summit in Madrid, which took place on June 28-30, the states managed to reach a compromise. Turkey lifted its veto, and Sweden and Finland officially received the status of countries invited to the Alliance. Now their candidatures must be approved by the parliaments of the NATO countries.

Earlier, Vladimir Putin said that the entry of Sweden and Finland into a military bloc does not cause concern in Russia.

“Only they should clearly and clearly imagine that before there were no threats to them, and now, if military contingents and infrastructure are deployed there, we will have to respond in a mirror manner and create the same threats for the territories from which threats are created to us,” the president said.