Finland is in NATO, it’s Sweden’s turn

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Friday after a vote in the Turkish parliament that Finland would officially become a full member of the North Atlantic Alliance “in the coming days”.
Recall that the Turkish parliament yesterday ratified Finland’s application for NATO membership, which was the last obstacle on the way of this Scandinavian country to the desired goal.
“All 30 NATO members have ratified the membership protocol,” Stoltenberg tweeted. According to him, the inclusion of Finland in the alliance “will make the whole NATO family stronger and safer”.
The land border between Russia and Finland exceeds a thousand kilometers, and there is also a line of contact between the countries along the Baltic Sea. From now on, most of the Russian northwest will also border NATO.
So far, Moscow has been slow to react to Finland’s passing of the final hurdle on its way to NATO. Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed the spirit that the entry of Scandinavian countries into the North Atlantic Alliance does not pose an immediate threat to Russia, but warned that in response to expansion of military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden, Russia will follow appropriate actions.
Moscow has nothing to answer for the entry of Finland, and after it Sweden, into NATO, except, perhaps, again to try to scare the world with the threat of the use of weapons, believes Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of the Insider Online publication. However, in his opinion, it is impossible to increase rates indefinitely.
“Essentially, Putin devalued his threats by repeating them too often,” he added in an interview with Russia’s media service. – Therefore, few people believe in his “scarecrows”. In that sense, he has no leeway.”
So Putin, so to speak, walked into a trap, says Roman Dobrokhotov. According to him, over the past few years, the Russian president has repeatedly tried to intimidate the West with supposedly unprecedented weapons in the world and, in general, militant rhetoric.
“At the same time, the Kremlin started from the calculation that it could force the West to make geopolitical concessions, and NATO not to expand towards Russia’s borders. However, against the backdrop of such rhetoric in other countries, mainly in the Balkans, public opinion eventually tilted towards NATO. Well, the real apotheosis of Kremlin policy was the decision to join the North Atlantic Alliance by Finland and Sweden, which had previously taken a very cautious position on this issue. This is the collapse of Putin’s policy.”
Finland and Sweden gave up their neutrality when they decided to join NATO last year, shortly after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
From a strategic point of view, Finland’s membership of NATO has changed little, the journalist believes. “In the case of a hypothetical war between Russia and the North Atlantic Alliance, it doesn’t matter how far NATO missiles are from Russian borders. The approach speed of the missiles does not depend on whether or not they are placed in the same Finland. That’s what submarines are for. In any case, the number of intercontinental nuclear missiles available to the alliance is such that Russian air defense, in principle, cannot shoot them all down.
Therefore, all talk about “reducing the flight time of missiles” is a verbal curtain designed for fools, Roman Dobrokhotov is sure. “In fact, the membership of Finland and Sweden in the North Atlantic Alliance poses no real danger for Russia, and this also applies to Ukraine and Georgia, for example. Therefore, from the Kremlin, the threat of NATO expansion to the east was initially a far-fetched pretext to invade Ukraine,” he concluded.
In connection with the entry of Finland and Sweden into the North Atlantic Alliance, Russia will have to reconsider its entire policy in the field of naval development, says Pavel Luzin, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy , political scientist from Tufts University, visiting researcher Luzin. According to him, in this context, statements from Moscow that everything is going according to plan mean absolutely nothing.
“In fact, the Baltic Fleet is finally losing its sense of existence, and the Northern Fleet is falling within range of NATO tactical aviation, as well as the Severodvinsk plant,” he said. he said in a comment to the Russian media service.
It is practically impossible to strengthen the defense in this direction, believes Pavel Luzin. “All the fantasies (of the military leadership of Russia) about the formation of a new army corps in Karelia are just an” imitation of violent activity “. The USSR, for example, retained the status neutral Finland in every possible way precisely because she fully understood that her entry into NATO makes Murmansk and Severomorsk simply defenseless, like the entire Baltic coast, ”concluded the expert.