UPDATE 10.10.24: Finnish President Alexander Stubb declared during a recent press conference that NATO was moving back to its original purpose of deterring Russia. The Kyiv Independent reports:
NATO is entering its “3.0” version, and is returning back to its original role as a deterrent against threats “mainly from Russia,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said during a press conference on Oct. 8 in Brussels.
Created in 1949 in the early stages of the Cold War, the military alliance was formed to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.
“I firmly believe that we are now witnessing the creation of NATO 3.0,” Stubb said, adding: “We are back to the original role of NATO as a deterrence and strong military alliance with a threat coming from the East, mainly from Russia.”
Finland joined NATO early 2023 after ditching its longstanding neutral stance following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
We have a very common understanding inside the alliance about our security challenges, and I think it is extremely important now that we work on both – deterrence and defense.”
Originally posted April 22, 2024.
Thomas Grove of The Wall Street Journal reports that from Russian military districts to cyberattacks, Finland is facing new threats from its neighbor; it’s ‘the new normal in living with Russia.’ Grove writes:
Finland—Armed Finnish border guards on cross-country skis patrol the country’s eastern flank, NATO’s newest and longest border with its main adversary, Russia. Helicopters and drones buzz overhead along new fences being constructed—13-feet high in places—with barbed wire on top and 24-hour electronic surveillance.
The new measures are meant to protect Finland from increasingly aggressive Russian operations. Those have included waves of migrants, which Helsinki says have been sent by Moscow to overwhelm the country’s remote borders in recent months. […]
Standing at Finland’s most eastern point, which juts into Russia, Teuvo Maksimainen, 76, says he has seen the region slowly lose its population and businesses as a result of the border closing. But he said it is a price Finns must pay.
“There’s no choice anymore, this is the Russia we live with,” he said.
Read more here.
