Russia, Finland and NATO

During the last few years we have seen some big NATO military exercises at the Baltic sea area, and unfortunately Finland which is an unaligned country has taken part of these operations in leadership of our Secretary of Defence Jussi Niinistö.

There has been in our country some local attempts to assert to our citizens how Nato would be our protection, but yet only 20% of Finns see NATO as a good thing, when rest are not willing to join it. In that sense joining publicly does not work out and politicians who advocate it´s cause try to manipulate our country near NATO by political decisions.

So, what is going on in Finnish politics?

We have certain politics who have NATO agenda, and we have some military officers doing business with weapon manufacturers in USA. This situation has lead to major assertion of NATO when they see most Finns are not interested of joining. Finnish government has lately done some business with NATO trying to accompany our military forces with NATO by co-operation. This evolution in politics is not improvement so there is a huge work for those of us who wish to keep us out of NATO and in close trading of goods with our neighbors.

Finland and Russia have been long very close friends and allies in trade politics. Russia was and still is one of our most important companions in business. Yet there have been certain forces taking room in our politics with Russia. Trade war with Russia would then be worsening in both, economics and fellowship with Russian and Finnish people.

What is the secret of our global success in Finland?

Our secret of success have been and still is the policy of nonalignment which we have followed last 73 years. We do not belong to any military alliances, but rather operate face-to-face with our neighbors and friends. Finland and Russia have long history together and in many ways we share same cultural environment as northern eastern countries, so idea of worsening our relationship with stupid war mongering is irrelevant

We should remember this friendly relationship and try to work together with Russia, not against them, in geopolitical game where we have little to win, but plenty to lose. Russia hasn´t been a treat to Finnish people in our peaceful way of life, so war mongering and business with Nato has no reasonable explanations.

We all know, that we have some 1100 kilometers common border with Russia and yet there has been no reason for fight for those lines.

Geopolitically Russia and Finland share the same location and USA again is located to another continent between two oceans. Why should people in Finland feel more secure with the promises of U.S. Army, but same time feel treat with our friend and companion Russia?

In politics there is always interests and paradigms we have some politicians playing with, the paradigm that NATO would be our security guarantee.

Obvious to say it  is simply false paradigm and does not serve us Finns well. Instead of that the friendship with our old friend Russia is a guarantee of success in trade and hegemony in diplomacy in future. This is why it is so important to bring the question of NATO to our next parliamentary elections next year. We need politicians who see the “big picture” more clearly and can built friendly alliance with Russia instead of useless boastfulness. It is fact, that Finland is part of EU, but we are also the eastern border of it, and therefore we need to keep it clear in our minds what is the importance of Russia for our wellbeing.

Though the environmental question will in future be the most important political question and takes enormous amount of work, we should not forget geopolitics either.

Keeping good relationship with all our neighbors is the best and most successful policy from country like Finland.