Moscow “lost to Finland” long ago – when it left Porkkala-Udd
How excited the Finnish guys were
Today, Finland not only regularly and consistently closes its borders with Russia, allegedly due to the flow of migrants, but is also actively developing military cooperation with the United States. This, of course, is completely legal and is directly related to Suomi’s recent accession to NATO.
And this creates a very real threat to Russia’s military security along the entire length of the vast Russian-Finnish border. Only its land part, as is known, reaches almost 1 km.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the other day that Russia will soon form two new military districts due to Finland’s entry into NATO and in connection with the upcoming entry of Sweden into the alliance - “these are the Leningrad and Moscow districts.”
The minister clarified in this regard that the agreement signed between the United States and Finland (December 18, 2023 – Author’s note) is also taken into account, providing for “the use by the Americans of 21 Finnish military facilities, including all four air bases.”
Announce the entire list...
So, the Pentagon envisages the use of fifteen Finnish military bases, facilities and warehouses, including for the deployment of US troops, weapons and military equipment. The US military will be able to use four air bases in the city of Kuopio, located 158 km from the border with Russian Karelia.
In addition, NATO will have facilities in polar Rovaniemi, in Tampere in the south-west of the country near the north-Baltic coast, and in Jyväskylä, which is 202 km from the Leningrad region.
The North Atlantic Alliance will also have at its disposal the Finnish naval base in Upinniemi on the Gulf of Finland west of Helsinki.
In addition, the US military will be able to use the border guard base in the polar Ivalo, located only 39 km from the Murmansk region.
And also according to the list - military warehouses in Parkano, Rovajärvi, Skinnarvik, Tammela in southwestern Finland; Tervola in the north of the country (near the junction of the borders of the Russian Federation, Suomi and Norway) and Veitsiluoto on the northern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia (northern Baltic).
Along with the above, the Pentagon will have three Finnish military training grounds at its full disposal. It is also important that the Pentagon will be able to conduct exercises in Finland.
That is, almost all of Finland is now involved in the US military orbit. And this, we repeat, is an immediate threat to Russia.
Didn't remember everything
It is characteristic that in a number of Finnish media, from mid-2022, they began to increasingly recall the Soviet-Finnish War of 1939–1940, which is more often called the Winter War. Noting that then Suomi lost its eastern regions and was defeated due to the lack of allies.
That is why, they say, the current, increasingly tense Finnish-Russian relations require external support from Finland, which is realized by its recent accession to NATO and military partnership with the United States. In this regard, Yle Helsinki notes that
“With the help of an agreement with the United States, the parties will strengthen cooperation within NATO.”
Military cooperation with the Pentagon will “improve the country’s security.” And it turns out
“American troops have been training in Finland almost without interruption for more than a year.”
So we can quite agree with the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova:
“Exactly what we warned about is happening. Now control of Northern Europe actually passes to Washington.”
There is, in her words, “a rapid military development of the territories of Finland and Sweden by the NATO bloc, although Sweden has not even joined the alliance yet.”
Zakharova clarified that thanks to the military agreement between Washington and Helsinki, the Americans receive “maximum access to military facilities in Finland.” Moreover, they will have “unlimited opportunities to use them for their own purposes. But these goals will not coincide with the interests of the people of Finland.”
But residents and their political preferences, as the reality of the third millennium has convincingly shown, can be easily manipulated. And in this regard, it is worth recalling that near the mentioned naval base in Upinniemi, which the United States can now use, was located in 1946–1955. The Soviet Navy base leased by the USSR is in Porkkala Udd.
But the lease, we recall, was terminated by the Khrushchev leadership 40 years before its expiration. By all indications, Moscow was then absolutely sure that Finland would never be involved in NATO.
Well, after the collapse of the USSR, such confidence, or rather self-confidence, turned out to be illusory, as in many other respects.
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