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Two long-time-EU, never-Soviet members joining NATO is as nothingburger as it gets. If anything, they didn't join three decades ago because of the poor optics o
by pphysch 4y ago
Two long-time-EU, never-Soviet members joining NATO is as nothingburger as it gets. If anything, they didn't join three decades ago because of the poor optics of incessant NATO expansion after USSR collapsed.
Now the cat's out of the bag, and there's no reason for them not to formally join the alliance (Ankara willing). But it doesn't change any strategic calculus.
- actionfromafar 4y agoI guess you never heard about Finlandisation!
- pphysch 4y agoHow is that relevant here?
- rippercushions 4y agoIt's the art of bowing to the East without mooning the West. Or was, rather, since Putin finally got the ass end.
- actionfromafar 4y agoFinland finally took a stand, how can it not be relevant? Russia gaining a huge NATO border. Finland and Sweden has always coordinated their defense. Sweden has top notch Air Force and great submarines in the Baltic Sea. Finland has thousands of modern artillery pieces. Russia can't lean on Finland anymore. Finland didn't want to join NATO for fear of provoking the "Bear". If this is not a ripple in northern geopolitics, I don't know what is. I'll give you that it currently isn't as important if Sweden joins or not. Erdogan made the impossible possible - having Finland join before Sweden.
- pphysch 4y agoFinland joined the EU almost 3 decades ago, despite Helsinki being only 300km from St Petersburg. The standard for Russian satellite state is Belarus, not Finland.
- actionfromafar 4y agoNobody implied Finland is or was a satellite state. In fact, it's balancing act was so striking, it got its own name: Finlandisation. I'm sorry, I just lost faith in your honesty.
- dbrueck 4y ago> Two long-time-EU, never-Soviet members joining NATO is as nothingburger as it gets Finland has been occupied multiple times by Russia and ceded 10% of its land to the USSR in an attempt to make peace. Heck, some even argue that Finland did a "redo" of one of their parliamentary elections because the USSR didn't like the results. Joining NATO is a major departure from their many decades of attempting appeasement - it's far from a nothingburger. It may be an even bigger deal inside Russia though: Putin directly triggered one of the very specific things Russia didn't want to have happen. This both arms his domestic critics and raises the pressure for him to deliver some sort of "win".