Probably trying to keep their valuables far away from Ukrainian drones.
this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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I'm just surprised they still have equipment to build up there.
Fuck putin
Nobody seems particularly alarmed by this, least of all Finland. I doubt Putin is going to go from losing a war against Ukraine to losing a war against Ukraine and Finland and the rest of NATO too. Seems like this "buildup" has been there for a while and is only growing presumably because Ukraine is getting really good at striking targets inside of Russian borders.
It’s being reported by the “Moscow Times” so that alone makes me dubious about this even being real
Even when Finland was "neutral", we always knew the enemy is in east, and if they were west, they were trying to flank.
Whole Finnish infrastructure is build on expectation of Russia again attacking us. Hopefully we won't forget that, now that we are part of NATO, because it makes us less easy target.
With what? Motorcycles and Ladas?
Here we go boys! WW3! Lets watch the destruction of the world order AGAIN. I wonder which side Trump will take? The allies he hates or the autocrat he adores?
How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man!?
So if the Russia sycophants use "NATO on their doorstep" as an excuse to forget Russia to invade ukraine wouldn't this build-up on the border of a NATO country give NATO the same excuse? I'm sorry I have trouble keeping up with the "logic" of Russia apologists.
You dont have to. It is all vibe based ideology. Like all good fascist propaganda.
Their bases have been about where the tent villages now are for decades. They're training grounds for new conscripts until they're moved to die in some ditch in Ukraine. Who knows why they're more active now, maybe Ukraine is getting pretty good to hit their targets deep in Russia so they need to move further away from the front line or whatever.
This has absolutely nothing to do with Finland, beyond the fact that our border just happens to be nearby. And should they actually try start an active war with NATO from there, these grounds are mostly in reach of Finnish artillery and our artillery is pretty damn efficient on what they do.
they were dumb enough to try it in the winter war.
I somewhat vaguely remember reports from the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine and talks about Finland joining NATO, that the region around Murmansk is a somewhat problematic spot for Russia. They have a huge military presence there and it's also one of their bases equipped with atomic bombs that threaten the west/NATO. But on the other hand land based access is only possible along the long and thin stretch of land along the Finnish border in an area that presumably is hard to defend.
Right, it gets into Russia's navy problem, which they've had for centuries and have never had a very good solution. Murmansk is one of the few (only?) ports they have that can reliably get ships out to the Atlantic. Black Sea ports have to go through the narrow channel at Istanbul (controlled by a NATO country, Turkey), and then you have to go through Gibraltar (England) or the Suez Canal (Egypt) (and you'd have to go around Africa if you go that way).
St Petersburg and Kaliningrad are on the Baltic sea, which is surrounded by NATO countries now. Even before then, the narrow opening in the North Sea could be easily blockaded.
Everything else is too far away. The sheer size of the country is both Russia's greatest defense and their biggest headache.
See also, this Drachinifel video about the Russian Baltic Fleet during the Russian Japanese War, where the fleet traveled the long way around, nearly starts a war with England, shoots up a bunch of civilian vessels and themselves, only to be curb stomped by the fledgling Japanese navy once they finally got there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mdi_Fh9_Ag
Yeah, Czar Nicky Two was a bad ruler. Putin has made some boneheaded decisions, but he's a political genius next to Nicky.
I once told my wife "I love you more than Russia loves warm water ports" and they were absolutely smitten with the nerdiness. Which is why I married them.
This is why they invaded Afghanistan in the first place. Their next step after what they thought would be a quick toodly-doo over the Afghanis was presumably to take a piece out of Pakistan in order to get a warm water port on the Arabian Sea.
It's also worth noting that you lumped St Petersburg and Kaliningrad together somewhat, but they are vastly different. While St Petersburg has challenges getting to open ocean, it's not the full-on exclave that Kaliningrad is, completely surrounded on all sides by the baltic states. I'm sure you know all of this, so this is for folks that don't. It wasn't entirely clear from the way you worded it.
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If they're going to attack a NATO member (humongous if), it definitely isn't going to be Finland. It's gonna be one of the Baltic states.
I kinda hope they'd be dumb enough to get their shit kicked in by Finland AGAIN. Gonna find an entire nation of Simo Häyhä's waiting, this time with javelins and drones.
Yeah they are really forgetting how badly they'll get their asses beat. Because not only do they have NATO, they have the EU, plus most of the british commonwealth, and so many more countries ready to come fuck their plans up incredibly hard.
gotta be bluster.
Just more money laundering by the Mob there. No actual plans to invade. they will use it as a way to cost Finland money.
Finalnd is a NATO member. Russia ain't fucking with NATO
If they do it wouldn’t be Finland anyway
They are "fucking with" NATO, historically, but not attack. Lots of "im not touching you im not touching you" on the borders and north sea. Military submarines where they are not supposed to be. Sudden declarations of artillery practice in international waters causing ship travel to reroute, then not actually doing practice...
This needs to be said over and over - Russia is and has been at war with NATO for over a decade and NATO doesn't seem to even realize it.
At war for over a decade is a bit of a stretch.
The most direct confrontation was Turkiye shooting down Russian jets that flew into their airspace when bombing in Syria about ten years ago. During Azerbaidschans attacks on Armenia both NATO and Russia made sure to not get into direct contact. Nothing came out of it directly. The sabotages in Europe that are organized by Russia have been a thing since 2022, maybe late 2021 unless i missed some.
Depends on your definition of 'war'. They've definitely been in rightist America's ear about abandoning NATO since 2016.
So is the US in Europe, South America, Middle East, Israel in all of the West, EU countries in Africa, China all over the world....
Trying to influence domestic policies in other countries is shitty, but it isnt war. Otherwise we are already in WW3 since many years.
Well, we might find out soon enough.
Yeah no. Even if the United States sits out on it's dumb fat orange ass, Russia is not likely looking to pick an active fight with all of Europe when it's disinformation warfare can disassemble Europe from the inside out, given enough time.
An active fight? Yeah, that's not going to happen. A passive one, though? Might be an option. Carlo Masala recently published his new book If Russia wins: a scenario (No English translation yet). In it, he draws up a scenario where Russia, after defeating Ukraine, annexes a small Estonian town to test NATO's resolve in the face of a limited Russian aggression. He bases this scenario on the German Re-occupation of the Rhineland, during which German troops had they faced any serious resistance by allied forces would have had to retreat. In the book NATO members are divided and dismiss the Estonians request for help under Article 5.
If even a cm of NATO is invaded and not acted on the alliance is worthless. For each nations safety, they must act or be defenceless going forward.
There is zero chance Russia is ever getting away with that, especially after burning all their bridges in Ukraine.
There is zero chance Russia is ever getting away with that
Is there? Given the rather reluctant support of Ukraine, which is about just enough to keep them in the fight, I'm afraid that at least some NATO members would rather give away a symbolic chunk of land than start a military confrontation. And yes, that would be the end of NATO.
But Ukraine is not part of nato, so although nato members were not happy, they risked a larger scale war by attacking directly. The point of nato is that Russia risks it by doing the opposite. And it only works if they aren’t bluffing.
But Ukraine is not part of nato
They had security guaranties from the US and UK after giving up their nuclear weapons inherited from the Soviet Union.
nato members were not happy, they risked a larger scale war by attacking directly. The
They did and do not risk anything.
It became very clear early on, that Russia was all bark and no bite. Russia couldn't have escalated to an all out European war if they wanted to, while their main psuh was being shredded on a highway towards Kiv. The only option to do so would have been the nuclear one but Putin wants to be Tsar, not dead.
Also even by standards of international law (as if that would account to anything anymore) supplying all sorts of weapons to Ukraine is legal. Any so called red line Moscow drew in the sand has been crossed so far and nothing has happened.
Do you really expect Putin to pull the trigger if European troops enter the battle with the clear communication that they would restore Ukraine to its borders before 2014?
I don't disagree that they should have responded when Crimea was invaded, a decade ago, or Georgia 15 or 20 years ago.
I think Ukraine deserved protection based on those agreements, which were made with world interest at heart.
The crux of the matter is that the USA can't be trusted to uphold any agreement with Trump at the helm. The UK is providing assistance but insufficient on their own.
Ukraine is not part of NATO, so there was not the same clear line of action and response.
Whether Russia was bark or bite is irrelevant when you send your own citizens to die in a war, protecting a different country. You need the political will and popular will to do that.
Those red lines Moscow made have incrementally dropped, without escalation outside ukrainez which sucks for Ukraine but is what the other allies would want, short of peace.
Putin is a violent demagogue and the only response is to destabilise him, which means being the war and sanctions to all Russians so that he doesn't have the political will not support to continue.
Appeasing him by allowing Crimea to be annexed will only mean he tries again there, or somewhere else in the future.
Romania and Poland had multiple opportunities to show something when shahed drones fly and crash/explode over their territory, they chose to do nothing every time. When these nations are so afraid of even destroying drones over their own aerospace muscovytes will invade whoever they want and other nato countries will just cower and pretend that everything is fine.
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Here is the article this article is using for its source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/world/europe/russia-finland-border.html
Edit: Yes, the article isn't great, and clearly has a Russian bias. I was just linking it becuase its the original, and more complete source.
This is one of the least informed articles I've ever read. Phrases like "From Moscow’s perspective, the Russians need to bolster their defenses to protect themselves from NATO expansion" is just a cherry on top. Lmao.
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Finnish people love metal. I bet it helps them in battle. At least +10 attack.
Russians storming a village with nice colorful houses. Suddenly the Deathmetal starts playing.
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