Putin's strategy is to spread fear in Finland | Heidi Hautala

"We have a neighbour that is unpredictable and wants to show its military muscles."

European Parliament vice-president and Finnish MEP Heidi Hautala says Putin's strategy to spread fear amongst the West has driven Finland towards NATO.
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[theHUNDSofDM]

I admire Finland, Sweden and Ukraine populations. Must be extremely hard having to live next door to the Orcs!

[tinaxtony]

The Finns are a great people civilised educated and wily They are wary of Russia but not frightened

[gerrycastlemanwarde]

I hope Putin's threats are not working. Stay strong Finland1 You stopped Russia before.

[DavidGetling]

Finland and Sweden really should announce their intention to join NATO BEFORE 9th May. This would be intensely embarrassing to Putin.

[thomas]

Turkey had that problem with Russian aircraft violating it's airspace. They shot one down, haven't had any problems since.

Softly, softly doesn't work with Russia. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[khmer]

It is very strange that people are actually believing that Finland is a neutral country. Finland was forced to be neutral. The entire military is built to keep an eye on Russia- no "neutral country" anywhere would do that.

[gourkernow]

NATO members should not be scared of putin because Russia is the weaker when compared to NATO as a conglomerate. What the conflict in Ukraine proves is that no country should ever risk having the Russian army crossing their border and laying waste to cities and executing 1000s of civilians.

[riittakeskikuru]

As a Finn and a daughter of my father, who was a Carelian refugee, this what happens now is feeling good. Its difficult toexplain, but we are not scared. At least we don’t have to play any games with Russia, in which we look like as e would believe anything Putin or any other leader before him said. Now we don’t need to believe anyone but ourselves

[roboldx]

The winter war and the second Soviet-Finnish war during the late 30's and 40 are enough for the Finn's to know. It is only a matter of time before the Russians try it again.

[PalleRasmussen]

Spreading fear in Finland is pretty hard, Finns are brave, tough and stubborn.

[shiroamakusa]

Being more threatening seems for me to be a rather counterproductive strategy in this case. Even if Finland could probably fend off the dilettantes of the Russian army, they could still do damage to Finnish cities, so even better if NATO membership prevents Russia from attacking at all.

[scottmac-cheeserae]

Welcome Finland. This will be an excellent deal for Both NATO and Finland.

[johnnygreen]

Putin: when a spoilt little schoolboy is allowed to run a country.

[cobbler]

If they don’t join NATO they could suffer the same fate as Ukraine.

[susanwhitley]

Praying for Finlands Safety along with the Baltic states. Sending love to you all at this difficult time. 🇬🇧❤

[davincidreams]

lol @ why. You realize that Finlands entire focus while building and focusing their military was to prepare for the next time Russia tried to invade, right? Its not a mistake that they built a NATO compatible military. It was good planning.

After all this is over I will be very interested to learn how Putin thought invading Ukraine would not LEAD to NATO expansion. Because it seems like an incredibly obvious outcome.

[stischer]

If both Finland and Sweden join NATO (which seems likely), NATO should send a Thank You note to Putin for accomplishing the impossible.

[patkelley]

If that's his intent, it's going to be a big mistake. The Finns know from their history that Russia did not do well in the Winter war because the Finnish troops were skilled and courageous. The Russian troops fighting in Ukraine were largely drawn from the northern forces, so they've lost much of their experienced troops with skills necessary to fight in the Finnish terrain. If Finland doesn't join NATO, there's a real possibility Russia would see that as weakness, and decide to attack them.

[landroveraddict]

The thing is there is a difference between wanting to join NATO and believing it is the best option for security. Putin's "strategy" is completely working against his desire to limit NATO expansion.

[murk]

Wait, the host said Finland had never been attacked by Russia/Soviet Union. I thought Russia took 10% of Finland in an attack.