Kremlin threatens to advertise for NATO: Finland adviser warns of "Achilles' heel of defense" against Russia
Created: 06/13/2022, 21:36
By: Patrick Mayer
Late March 2022: Finnish soldiers take part in NATO's Cold Response exercise in Norway.
© Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
Because Finland wants to join NATO, Russia is threatening its neighbor militarily.
A small group of islands in the Baltic Sea is considered a possible gateway for a Russian attack.
Munich/Aland - To date.
The Soviet invasion of Finland in the Winter War of 1939/40 left deep scars in the Scandinavian country.
After Russia's attack on Ukraine this spring, past concerns promptly surfaced.
So much so that Finnish politicians recently decided in Helsinki to give up decades of neutrality and instead enter into accession negotiations with the transatlantic defense alliance NATO.
Will Finland join NATO?
Turkey blocks, Russia threatens
Moscow reacted immediately.
"Another expansion of NATO will not make our continent more stable and secure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the
Interfax agency
.
Peskov said in mid-May that Russia would analyze the consequences of Finland joining NATO with a view to its own security.
Finland, which is blocked within NATO by a Turkish veto, still wants to join the western defense community at all costs.
The country, which has a population of just 5.5 million, has a relatively strong army and has been holding exercises with NATO for years.
In the video: Compact - The news about the Russia-Ukraine war
The matter is geopolitically sensitive.
The north of Finland borders on the Murmansk Oblast, where the Russian Northern Fleet is stationed in the city of the same name (around 300,000 inhabitants) and in neighboring Severomorsk.
"If the Finnish leadership gets involved, that would be a strategic mistake," said
Russian Duma deputy Vladimir Dschabarov, commenting on Helsinki's desire for
NATO
developed would become a target.
I think that would be a terrible tragedy for the entire Finnish people."
Finland wants to join NATO because of the Ukraine war - Threatening gestures from Moscow follow
The threatening gestures are not new.
But they are particularly drastic after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The worries are real too.
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A look back: As early as spring 2015, the Finnish military informed its approximately 900,000 reservists about their role in an emergency.
The action had nothing to do with a threat from Moscow, explained then Defense Minister Carl Haglund: "Many reservists are interested in what role they would have and they are motivated to do their part in defending this country." A year earlier, Russia had Crimea annexed under international law between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
Idyllic: the Aaland Islands off the coast of Finland.
© IMAGO / agefotostock
While Kremlin despot Vladimir Putin and his power apparatus in Moscow, including the church, continue to threaten NATO, a Finnish military expert is now sounding the alarm with a view to his country's geostrategic situation.
Not only that both countries have a 1340 km long border.
The story does the rest.
It was not until 1917, as a result of the February Revolution, that Finland, as a formerly autonomous Grand Duchy, declared its independence from the then Russian Empire.
Should Finland be afraid of Russia?
Ex-presidential advisor does not rule out attack
A professor now thinks, in 2022, that he has identified an “Achilles heel in Finnish defence”.
"There is concern that Finland might not be able to react quickly enough militarily in the event of a sudden attack on Aland," former presidential adviser Alpo Rusi told the
AFP
news agency . "This is the Achilles' heel of Finnish defence."
The background: the archipelago on the south-west coast has been a demilitarized zone since the then League of Nations decided in 1921.
Aland belongs to Finland, but is administered autonomously.
Soldiers and/or military bases are not allowed.
Consequently, there would be no defense against a possible attack by the armed forces of Russia.
These are the Aland Islands
Form of government: autonomous region of Finland
Official language: Swedish
Location: North Baltic Sea, off the Finnish coast
Population: 30,000
Archipelago: Archipelago of 6700 islands and skerries
International legal status: demilitarized zone
The geographic location in the northern Baltic makes the problem even greater.
The archipelago is located between the military base of the Russian Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad and the Gulf of Finland, at the end of which lies the second largest Russian city of St. Petersburg (around five million inhabitants).
Other Finnish experts also doubt whether Russia would accept the neutrality of the Aland Islands in the event of a conflict.
After all, these would be suitable militarily as a bridgehead.
Finland's negotiations with NATO are faltering - concerns about neighboring Russia remain
"Why should we trust the idea that the troops would not take control of Aland as soon as possible?" said
Charly Salonius-Pasternak, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs , according to
Bild .
Negotiations about joining NATO are faltering - concerns about the huge neighbor are not diminishing.
(pm)