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Finland has 1340 kilometers of border with Russia, hence the length of Russia's shared borders with NATO member states has doubled. Until now, due to the extremely harsh climatic nature of the area, good control of these borders has posed quite a problem for the Finns for decades. Historically, the war between Finland and Russia-then the Soviet Union-began in November 1939, when the USSR demanded the handover of the territories you see on the map from Finland to also use Finnish ports in the Baltic. The Russians had a significant advantage in numbers of troops and equipment, but the Finnish army nevertheless successfully defended its territory through effective war tactics. The war ended in March 1940 with the signing of peace in Moscow. Finland was forced to cede areas of Karelia to the USSR, as well as give way on the use of ports on the Gulf of Finland-but the country retained its independence, and the Russians lost the conflict with about 200,000 casualties, while Finland lost about 25,000 people-obviously with a population of several million, this is a huge loss, but with the capabilities of the Soviet army, it really isn't much. It was a setback that directly later contributed to the Third Reich's attack on the USSR, as well as Hitler's cooperation with the Helsinki government. This is what the Russians have feared the most in recent years - a renewed environment similar to that of World War II. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that Russia would be "closely watching" what happens in Finland, describing NATO enlargement as "a violation of our security and our national interests."

Timeline:
0:00 Finland joins NATO
3:12 Historical pasts of Finland and Russia
4:28 Russian reaction to Finland joining NATO
5:57 The question of the Baltic States
6:42 Finland's military strength
8:29 The Baltic Sea a NATO sea?
9:12 The base in Murmansk
10:17 Finland is getting more and more armed
11:06 War for the Arctic


#finland #nato #russia