Rovaniemi, Finland—best known as the official home of Santa Claus—is seeing a growing NATO military presence as tensions with Russia rise. Thousands of NATO troops have trained nearby in Lapland, close to the Russian border, with the city set to host Finland’s Forward Land Forces (FLF) battlegroup as part of NATO’s eastern deterrence. The buildup has become visible even to Christmas tourists, highlighting how the festive Arctic destination is also a strategically vital region preparing for potential conflict, reports Miranda Bryant of The Guardian. Bryant writes:

Billed as the official home town of Santa Claus, or joulupukki as he is known in Finland, the city of Rovaniemi offers every imaginable Father Christmas-related experience – from a visit to his “office” on the Arctic Circle to reindeer sleigh rides. He even has his own branch of the Finnish design house Marimekko.

But this Christmas season, in addition to the hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world coming in search of Santa, Finnish Lapland’s snow-covered capital is becoming an increasingly popular destination for international military visitors.

In recent weeks, thousands of Nato soldiers have been through Rovaniemi, which also has an airbase, for training exercises at nearby Rovajärvi, western Europe’s largest military exercise area, where they are preparing for a potential attack by Russia. Rovajärvi is about 55 miles from the Russian border. […]

“This morning we took a reindeer tour and we just saw military planes going around,” she said. “We felt the presence of reality being here. You cannot hide from it.”

At Santa Park, the “home cavern of Santa Claus”, which is dug into a big mound, it is difficult to ignore the fact that it doubles up as a bomb shelter for the city’s residents. […]

Last week, while the amusement park Santa Claus Village was full of excited children – and quite a few adults – flocking to meet Santa under falling snow, a short drive away at Rovajärvi, nearly 1,000 troops from Sweden, Finland and the UK were participating in Lapland Steel 25. The exercise was held immediately after another, Northern Strike 225, which brought more than 2,000 Finnish and Polish soldiers together to train there. […]

Last week, representatives of the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian armed forces met in Rovaniemi to discuss plans for the establishment of Finland’s FLF, which the city will act as a base for. The battle groups, said the Swedish army brigadier general and 1st Division commander Michael Carlén, would come from over the Swedish border in Boden, Norrbotten. […]

In a joint statement released last week [1 December], the Finnish and Swedish prime ministers, Petteri Orpo and Ulf Kristersson, said they planned to “deepen bilateral cooperation” – including across defence and civil preparedness.

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