Russia’s Friend? – Finnish Defence in Crises

Lt(N) James Mashiri made an interesting post in Swedish as well as Finnish (but so far not available in English), arguing that the differences between Finnish and Swedish security policies are far greater than usually admitted, and that this can be seen in the way Russia is handling the different countries. In brief, Sweden maintains its sovereignty, and has for a long time been a de facto member of the NATO-sphere, even if not included under the protection of Article 5. Finland is still stuck in the mindset that we should be mindful of our big neighbor, and not make unnecessary trouble by irritating the Russians. The effect has been that Russia has acknowledge Sweden as an enemy, which can be seen in the offensive operations conducted against Sweden both in the air and under the surface. On the other hand, Russia tries to make Finland stay non-aligned through the…