18 November.2022 **** Front page
Finland abandons its decades old neutrality
By Tapani Lausti
Finnish prime minister Sanna Marin has declared that Finland will stand by Ukraine and now by Poland. Marin seems to behave as if she alone can join any confrontation in the world without any democratic procedure. Finland is thus joining a world that is getting out of control.
There is a general impression that Finland suddenly wanted to join NATO in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This is an understandable misconception, created by the fact that the majority of Finns were shocked by the behaviour of their big Eastern neighbour. But the background is more complicated. It has also been speculated that this sudden enthusiasm for NATO membership could be a passing phenomenon.
Finnish media has misled people to believe that NATO is a defence organisation that would make Finland a safer country. The majority of Finns, at least for now, do not understand that NATO is an aggressive and dangerous organisation whose arrival at the Finnish-Russian border is the most dangerous option for Finnish security. It is as if Finnish politicians have not studied the reality of NATO's behaviour in the world. The United States' foreign policy is aggressive and the policy makers do not care about human lives or the safety of heir allies. After the US inspired coup in Kiev in 2014 Ukrainian forces - with the neo-nazi Azov regiment - killed thousands of Russian speaking Ukrainians in Donbass region.The US and NATO kept weaponizing Ukraine in order to antagonize Russia. The Minsk peace efforts were useless. In the end Russia chose a military attack as if mass killings and destruction would be the solution.
Finnish enthusiasm to send arms to Ukraine reflects the new war atmosphere that has spread in parts of Europe. Old peace seeking rules are disappearing.The Finnish process that led to the NATO membership application is full of questionable turns. There was no proper debate about the consequences of membership. The whole process has been described as undemocratic and dishonest. Initially president Sauli Niinistö favoured a national referendum. But as the mood in the country seemed to favour membership, Niinistö and other leading politicians decided that a Gallup poll of just over thousand carefully selected people was acceptable as a sufficient proof of national enthusiasm for NATO membership.
The fact is that the Finnish political elite, led by the president, had been working for some time to join NATO. The process was started with “Host Nation Support” – the first step toeards NATO membership -- which in 2014 was smuggled through the Finnish parliament without due regard of official proceedings. The key was president Niinistö's illusion of NATO as a peace organisation willing to defend countries that felt threatened by real or imagined enemies. So Niinistö with his supporters among the Finnish political elite thought that Finland would be safer with NATO rather than by the decades old neutrality and military non-alignment.
Knowledgeable Finnish commentators have been aware of this questionable process for some time. Some of them have described Niinistö's behaviour as thoroughly deceitful. Niinistö seems to have deep illusions about the United States as a credible supporter of world freedom and democracy. The fact of American aggressive military behaviour in the world seems to escape his world view.
It is quite shocking to realise that the Finnish political and media elite cannot understand the reality of world politics. Mainstream media has deliberately painted a misleading picture of international affairs. Part of the population is shocked by the way the traditional Finnish non-alignment policy is thrown out of the window.
A reaction is growing, however. A counter-movement has been started by veteran journalist and author Mauno Saari who has been joined by many influential citizens. The aim is to create a critical media outlet and organisation which could break through the distortions which have been forced into public understanding of Finnish and world reality.
Some tension will surely appear in the discussion as the question of nuclear weapons has to be dealt with. It is considered self-evident that Russia would not accept nuclear weapons on the Finnish-Russian border and near Saint Petersburg. Finland will thus be forced to deal with tensions that it has not experienced for decades. President Niinistö has a strangely laidback attitude as if the question of NATO nuclear weapons is not of great importance. Finland has entered a new unpredictable era.
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