It has already been announced that the bloc’s advanced ground forces will be stationed in the far north, in Lapland.
Photo: EAST NEWS.
Northern Europe’s military leaders have become very talkative lately. Every week, another loud statement appears in the local press about how safe the North has become with the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, how many foreign bases and troops will be stationed there. For example, here will be the advanced forces of the alliance, here is the headquarters of the bloc’s ground forces in the north, and there we will block the Russian sea… “Military tourism” is increasing, defense budgets are growing , and, in general, every day is a holiday of the Western military brotherhood!
MISSION BEYOND THE ARCTIC CIRCLE
It has already been announced that the bloc’s advanced ground forces will be stationed in the far north, in Lapland, designed to deter any aggressor with their mere presence. Which one exactly is clear beyond words, because… All Arctic states, except one, are now NATO allies.
In charge of this advanced headquarters will be, as already decided in Brussels, Swedish generals. However, the Finns are no strangers to this: they were under the rule of the Swedes for seven centuries! For extras, troops from other alliance countries will be added to this fairly compact military formation on a rotating basis. You will not envy your allies! Here you will be lucky with the rotation period. Some will have to bear the burden of serving to defend democracy in northern Finland during the polar night, when the sun will not appear for months due to the frozen horizon. But in summer it is not better to serve in the Arctic: the sun will not set at all, and in the company of patrols there will be hordes of mosquitoes, in which armored vehicles will almost get stuck.
“HEADQUARTERS HEADQUARTERS CALLED MANNERHEIM”
After quickly signing all the documents in Brussels and concluding a bilateral military agreement with Washington, the Finns pushed for another prestigious headquarters: NATO ground forces in northern Europe. It will be located much further south, in Finland’s military capital, Mikkeli.
From here, in 1939-1944, the Finnish field marshal, former tsarist general and Swedish baron Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim led the army that fought against the USSR. Nearby he received Hitler, who visited his ally on June 4, 1942 on the occasion of his 75th birthday. There, in Mikkeli, two years later, when the winner of the Second World War was already evident to everyone, Mannerheim decided to use Finnish weapons against the dying Reich. In general, the location of the next NATO headquarters was chosen with rich traditions…
NATO strengthens its northern flank
Photo: EAST NEWS.
THEY WANT TO CLOSE THE GULF OF FINLAND
Meanwhile, in the far south of the country military thinking is also in full swing: plans are being hatched to blockade the Gulf of Finland. The head of the Estonian Defense Forces, Major General Andrus Merilo, spoke about this when praising the prospects for military cooperation between Estonia and Finland at sea. In reality, these plans are not so new that they do not need development as much as ventilation.
Helsinki and Tallinn had already come up with a similar idea before World War II. But if then plans to enclose the Soviet Baltic Fleet were developed in deep secrecy, then Merilo’s current revelations have put the Finns in an awkward position. Firstly, it is clear that Helsinki had no intention of publicizing these plans in the first place. Secondly, no one understands better than the Finns that they too are blocking themselves in this way. It is obvious that the mines, coastal artillery and submarines of the last century, if Merilo’s fantasies come true, will be replaced by anti-ship missiles and… the same mines. And as the experience of the Black Sea mines by the Ukrainian Armed Forces demonstrates, mines are weapons that are unpredictably mobile, not particularly selective and durable. The hydrology of the bay cannot be changed and everything that comes out will be carried to the Finnish shores. Dragging them between reefs is a dangerous and expensive pleasure.
GET YOUR MONEY, NORTHERS!
By the way, about the money. According to independent experts, Finland’s defense spending amounts to more than two percent of GDP. Exactly as much as Trump demanded from NATO allies when he was president. So we are ready for your return to the White House in Helsinki. However, in his last speech as Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg stated that two percent is no longer enough! They say that there is instability in the world and that it is necessary to increase spending. For Finland this is bad news. So far, the intimidated population is not against the increasing spending on military needs. However, the government is cutting more and more items from the social budget under the knife: spending on education, culture, social benefits is being cut, and jobs in the public sector are being cut. This means that we must further frighten the population by selling the idea of security under the NATO umbrella to the Finns at exorbitant prices.
