Russia warns Finland against joining NATO
Sergei Markov, Vladimir Putin's personal envoy.
Do Finland want to start World War III? It's something to think about if Finland wants to join NATO, warns Russian President Vladimir Putin's personal envoy Sergei Markov.
It's not Russian hatred against Finland, but if Finland joins NATO, it shows that the country has a Russia-complex, said Markov, who is a political scientist, to the newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet.
- If Finland wants to join NATO, they should think first . Will you join and start World War III? Anti-Semitism started World War II. Russofobia can start a third. Finland is one of the most russofobic countries in Europe, after Sweden and the Baltic countries, says Markov to the Finnish newspaper.
He calls the Russofobia in Finnish media "despicable" and says he has stopped reading translations from Finnish media. He cites the phrase "this could lead to the Russian influence increases" as an example of what he calls Russofobia.
In the same interview Markov predicts that the eastern part of Ukraine, including Donetsk, Luhansk, Harkiv, Odessa, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporozjie are going to form a new federation to be named Novorossija.
In June 2012 Russia's President Putin said that Finland will surrender its right to act independently in the event it joins the western military alliance, Putin added that Moscow will respond to deployment of any NATO attack missiles based in the Nordic country.
“The involvement of any country in a military bloc deprives it of a certain degree of sovereignty, and some decisions are made at a different level,” the Russian president said at a meeting on June 22nd 2012 with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
He compared the situation with what has transpired in the bureaucratic realm concerning Finland’s visa regime to Russia citizens.’
The prime minister of Finland, Jyrki Katainen of the National Coalition Party, made headlines in April 2014 with a peculiar assertion on the question of Finland joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). According to Katainen, the overwhelming opposition to the NATO membership by the Finnish public, (that existed up to that moment) is "an insufficient reason" to reject NATO membership. "It cannot be presumed that the public is able to draw conclusions on such a major question, since many people don't even have a chance to familiarise themselves with these things to the extent the politicians do," he elaborated.
The remarks,serve as a telling reminder that there are powerful factions within the Finnish establishment eager to bring Finland fully on board with NATO, led by the US, fostering bilateral relations between Helsinki and Washington and to express stronger support for the US role in world affairs.
Of the Finnish factions supporting the country's NATO membership, the one with the biggest clout is the National Coalition Party. Having gained 44 of the 200 seats in the 2011 parliamentary elections, this right-wing party became, for the first time in its history, the largest political party in Finland.
Among other prominent Finnish actors with a pro-NATO agenda is Helsingin Sanomat, the most influential Finnish daily newspaper and the largest subscription newspaper in the Nordic countries. In 2006, the then editor-in-chief Janne Virkkunen confirmed that the paper was in favour of Finland joining NATO. Besides a number of National Coalition Party members advocating Finland's NATO membership, and, as was to be expected, Helsingin Sanomat has featured a great deal of pro-NATO advocacy during the ongoing Ukraine crisis.
Fearing Finland will already behave like NATO country, Russia's leadership decidied in March 2014 to demonstrate fire power and hold major maneuvers "under the Finland window", or to be precise - in their mutual Baltic waters.
 
Russia's maneuvers in Baltics. March 2014
Russian Electronic Warfare specialists
The Alakurtti base was originally closed in 2009 and operations moved to a unit in Moscow. Now, the Defence Ministry is urgently moving both equipment and manpower back. The base is reportedly to be reopened in the course of 2014. Since 2009, Alakurtti has hosted only a Russian border guard unit.
The reopening of the base could be linked also with the current expanded Russian engagement in the Arctic. Enhanced military activities in the region, as well as a more shipping and industrial activities, gives Russia a bigger demand for regional information. A key objective for the new base personnel will be to keep track of international (especially NATO) air and naval activities in the Arctic, Izvestia informs.
On June 10 2014, “Yekaterinburg” Russian nuclear missile submarine is re-launched to the Barents sea water after two years of extensive repair, and on June 11 Russia’s newest strategic nuclear-powered submarine «Vladimir Monomakh» left the Sevmash shipyard to start sea trials in the nearby White Sea.
Further more, Russia’s leadership decided their most advanced submarine-launched intercontinental missiles in spite being not yet technically completely tested and approved for duty, will enter combat mission in the Barents Sea by end of June.
Maybe the best indicator of how bad relations between Russia and its Nordic neighbours have become, is in fact the may 2014 decision of Russia’s Ministry of Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters to issue travel bans to all its employees like the country’s firefighters, ambulance drivers and rescue troopers who used or had plans to travel to Finland, Sweden or Norway.
Fire fighters are part of Russia's Ministry of Emergencies.
A similar travel ban is imposed for parts of employees under the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) including tens of thousands of police officers, prison guards, and other law enforcement agencies like the Federal Drug Control and the Federal Migration Service. Others listed are people with access to state secrets, like certain employees of the Foreign Ministry. According to estimates, they are around 250,000 people.
The two reasons given to explain the Russia's travel bans (usual only in times of war drumming) are to take measure to prevent leaks of secrets and secondly, to prevent the possibility of being arrested by U.S. law enforcement agencies.
MVD (Russian Ministry of Interior) has already prepared a blacklist of 150 countries their employees no longer can visit. Norway, Sweden and Finland are on top of the list, as well as all other EU member countries and nations around the world that have an agreement with the U.S. on mutual extradition, reported Izvestia. Countries like North Korea, Cuba and Vietnam are not on the list.
Blogger51 in Murmansk reports that there is a lively discussion among police officers in an online blog-forum. Many express their frustration after already made summer bookings to foreign travel destinations.
Russian police officers, fire fighters and other law enforcement employees in Murmansk or Arkhangelsk, afer decades of friendship and cooperation with their Finish and other Scandinavian colleagues, now can forget about visiting them.
In response to Russian conduct toward Ukraine and its Nordic neigbourghs, Norwegian Ministry of Defence confirmed on May 30 2014, that it is expanding its suspension of militar cooperation with Russia. 
Defence Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide closed cooperation with Russia within certain sectors.
”Following the illegal annexation of the Crimea, Russia has contributed to a further destabilization of the situation in Ukraine”, Minister Ine Eriksen Søreide said in a press release. ”Based on an evaluation of the situation in Ukraine and Russian conduct, the Government has decided to prolong the suspension of all bilateral military activities until the end of 2014”, Søreide added. As previously reported, Norway in March announced that is was cutting its military relations with the Russians until May.
With the continued ban on cooperation, a total of 15 planned bilateral events are being cancelled or postponed, among them a visit from the Head Commander of the Russian Armed Forces.
Nevertheless Norway MoD decided to continue to follow up contact between its Joint Headquarters and the Russian Northern Fleet, which is Russia’s powerful navy unit based in the Kola Peninsula. ”This is important in order to meet security requirements of all parts in northern waters and to promote stability and predictability in our neigborhood areas”, the ministry stated.
As relations with neighboring Russia sour, Finnish armed forces at the end of May 2014 started up a major military rehearsal in their northern military district. They allowed Russian inspectors to monitor their Army drills.
Finland is starting major drills in its northern military district, close to the Russian border.
Close to 5000 troops and 1000 vehicles were part of the drills, which were the biggest in Finland for decades.
For two weeks, the Finnish military showed force in the northern parts of the country. Apart from conscripts and senior officers the war games nvolved tanks, artillery and anti-tank weapons, as well as the specialist Arctic unit, the famous Jaeger Brigade.
Russia, has requested and got permission to conduct an official inspection in the initial part of the rehearsal.
The aim of the inspection was to establish that Finland follows up its obligations under the Vienna Document. The inspections were part of routine arms control. Reciprocally, Finland takes part in inspections in Russia and other participating states, Finish military informed.
The drills came as Finnish relations with neighbouring Russia are under increasing strain. The situation has been additionally aggravated by Russian military aircrafts’ apparent violations of Finnish air space this week. According to the Finnish Defence Ministry, one aircraft violated the state border by Porvoo on May 20 and another in the Gulf of Finland on May 21 2014.
According to Finland Defence Minister Carl Haglund, the current political course in Russia is bringing Finland closer and closer to NATO.
Finnish Defence Minister Carl Haglund
“It is a bit of a paradox that Russia’s actions have pushed Finland and Sweden closer to NATO membership than ever before. I doubt that was the Russian intention,” he said.
As previously reported, Finland is also strengthening its military cooperation with Sweden and Norway. Earlier this month, Finland and Sweden signed a joint nine-point action plan on enhanced military relations. The countries are also actively participating within the Nordefco agreement.
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