VIEW / Russia asked two territorial questions to Finland :: Politics
The secretary general admitted that the plan for accelerated expansion to the north was frustrated: Finland and Sweden are unlikely to join the candidates for the summit alliance in Ireland because of Turkey’s protection. But since then, Russia has had questions for Finland, and they concern what they observe while they control from Helsinki. Till.
Helsinki was warned: Russia will not remain so simply that the length of its borders with the countries of Europe is approximately doubling. The main answer, the need for a search, will come from the General Staff and there will be a redeployment of troops and weapons. But there will also be private consequences – Russia and Finland have a long history of “special governments.” We have some pots to beat.
The simultaneous departure under the wing of the North Atlantic Alliance of the Swedes is much less, although the Swedish army and the military-industrial complex are much more powerful than the Finnish ones. First, because of all the same borders. Secondly, they spat with the Swedes back in the 2000s – mainly because of Georgia and Mikheil Saakashvili, the veteran of Swedish politics Carl Bildt was the executor. Since then, wealthy Scandinavians have included an informal anti-Russian bloc within the EU from Poland, the Baltic states and Romania and have not entered into any dialogue with Russia.
Not so with the Finns, with whom there is still a large-scale treaty of friendship and fuel. Guided by his positions, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö even in the Kremlin to discover the Finnish elite. If there is an idea in society about entering into reality, then there is almost absolute support in the political class. For example, in the Finnish parliament, Eduskunte, only the ultra-left voted against applications for membership in the alliance.
From Niinistö’s point of view, he simply presented Russia with a fact. And now many are waiting for what fact Russia itself will put Helsinki before.
economic pressure was predicted, but it is now clear that this is not working: the Finns have bitten the bit and enthusiastically shoot themselves in the foot. For example, at a time when the Germans, Italians, Greeks and most of the available buyers of Russian gas agreed for it in rubles, the Finns, discovering the need for Russian blue fuel to disclose two-thirds, took a pose after the Poles – they are ready to sacrifice their industry. , just not to succumb to “blackmail” (extremely harmless, we note) from Moscow.
they are often expected to behave much more cautiously. After all, Finland’s economy from Russia is stronger than that of any other EU country. Here are strong, with Soviet temporary remaining ties, and tourism, and brisk trade, and most importantly – geography. St. Petersburg with its suburbs travels through the population from all over Finland.
So when we have a crisis, they also have a crisis. Finns’ incomes inevitably fall if the purchasing power of Russians falls.
So there was a reason to expect prudence from the Finns – and not only on our part, but also on the part of the EU, where prudence would be called “betrayal”.
In Brussels and Washington everything is also equipped for Finnish trade. Now, as if proving to the “big brother” that Helsinki is not a weak link and will not falter in front of the Russian bear, the Finns are running ahead of the American steam locomotive – and are running straight to NATO.
Now the expansion is moving forward – the expansion of the alliance is blockading Turkey and wants to block Croatia. In order to seize this, first of all, a subject for bargaining with the United States: Ankara needs the seizure of weapons detentions and, as you know, high technology, and the Croats need Croatian autonomy in Bosnia. The prospects for realizing these Wishlist in full are very modest. But you need to understand that Finland just came to hand here, and was formally declared to be nominated for Sweden.
The Turks do not like the fact that there are now many Kurdish politicians in the kingdom (at least six deputies in parliament), who are accused in absentia of supporting terrorism. And the Croats have old statements personally to Carl Bildt – one of the main authors of the Dayton Accords, where Croatian national autonomy is not provided.
Neighbors on the Scandinavian Peninsula, already in a defense alliance with each other, expected to join NATO together. But the Finns may be let ahead, that is, even taking into account the Turkish-Croatian misfortune, which we come to the same result that is not accepted – the accession of Finland to the North Atlantic Alliance.
Reversing this situation seems unlikely. And then the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation reached into his pocket for trump cards.
As Russia’s Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov, an experienced diplomat, said, now Moscow can raise the issue of the status of two events – the Aland Islands and the Saimaa Canal. The Alands influenced Russia about as much as they did independent Finland. Most of the Saimaa Canal still belongs to her – to the great annoyance of the Finns.
The issue with the Alands is simpler, although their status is complicated. an exclusive part of Finland, they are almost exclusive Swedes who belong to an extremely wide range of world standards of autonomy. Many people have their own flag, parliament, meeting rooms. But the islands with 30,000 (and, by the way, very prosperous) population even have citizenship, and they do not use Finnish in the official sphere. .
These islands became part of Russia after the war with the Swedes – not the famous North, where Peter I and Mazepa appeared, the war of 1808-1809, when St. Petersburg signed the Treaty of Tilsit, the French time was an ally of Napoleon. Actually, then the Russian Empire grew with Finland as such, essentially granting the Finns national statehood under the crown of the Romanovs.
So the islands, located at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, temporarily became the westernmost church of the empire. In those days, they demanded colossal importance both for shipping in the Baltic and for military control over the region. Now the Russian army “threatened the Swede” just 130 kilometers from Stockholm.
From the historical small number of islands that remained after another war, which Russia, contrary to its custom, showed – the Crimean. In the Baltic, hostilities also took place, the French shelled the Alands with the sea, and as a result of the union of the future St. Petersburg, they made the islands a demilitarized zone, and this requirement was observed at least until the beginning of the 20th century.
After the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Swedes built their own and landed on the Alands, where exclusive Swedish property is still preserved. But the League came out – the predecessor of the UN – decided to leave the islands behind Finland on terms of broad autonomy and receive the status of a demilitarized zone. To this day, the Alanders do not even live in the Finnish army.
In the case of modern Russia, it is unlikely that we are talking about “the return of the Alands to their native harbor.” The question that concerns Chizhov is whether to maintain this steadfastness in NATO expansion in the north, whether the North Atlantic Alliance should be based on the islands. If there is another escalation in Russia’s relations with West Stan, such a development of events cannot be.
As for the Saimaa Canal, it was one of the “great construction projects” of the empire period. Its purpose is to connect the system of inland lakes in Finland (Saima is the coastal one) with the Gulf of Finland and, accordingly, with the Baltic Sea. It was possible to dig something out from the 15th century, but it was possible only towards the end of the reign of Nicholas I, about which the Finns begged the emperor. They needed trade routes, and St. Petersburg needed, for example, a forest (in the sense of Finnish wood), so the monarch gave his good and his own money.
The project was expensive, but came out cheaper than expected, and paid off earlier than expected. Such cases with state projects in the history of Russia happened infrequently.
The probability channel was opened on the day of the coronation of Alexander II. At the same time, unable to cope with the festive fireworks, they set a big fire in the Vyborg Castle, located at the exit of the canal to the Baltic (by the way, today this is the only knight’s castle of the Western European type in the territory of the Russian Federation).
After the collapse of the empire, the Saimaa Canal remained on Finnish territory, but following the results of the Soviet-Finnish and World War II, most of it was cleared through the territory of Russia.
In the established forced but rather warm friendship between Helsinki and Moscow, the canal was modernized and given a second life. The last president of Finland, Urho Kekkonen, said so at its opening – the friendship of the two peoples “is cast here in concrete and carved in the rocks.”
The repair was carried out with Finnish money, but the subtlety is that by that time the canal had already been commissioned to the arena of Finland, more precisely, a narrow strip of land intended for it. Finnish national patriots believe that this is a very bad deal – the basis for territorial losses, but on their part it was empty noise: the irretrievability of technical “losses” had already issued an alarm by that time.
The lease was for a century and is due to expire in 2063. But taking into account the fact that there is no more friendship with the Finns (and it doesn’t exist, and it’s not only about NATO; after the start of special operations, opinion polls revealed residents of Suomi as one of the most anti-Russian peoples of the EU), the legal services of Smolenskaya Square and the Kremlin will definitely find a reason to terminate contract ahead of time.
Will it be tangible for the Finns? Will. It is quite necessary for them to become a trade route, completely dependent on the mood of the Russian customs.
But at the same time, this is a movement in adaptation, which was announced by the Finns themselves. Breaking ties with Russia, companies with the Russian market, a sharp deterioration in trade, including through the Saimaa Canal – the Finns themselves are doing all this. Breaking the round of joining forces for a common goal – to close the door. Only the Finns close it from the outside, and we from the inside (or vice versa; there may be different opinions here).
It will be better for us if Suomi is given all the resources at once. This can cool the heat of hot Finnish guys and lead to reflection on the topic that some things are unchanged, including their proximity to a large nuclear power, which is very expensive to be at enmity with.
That sobering up will come, no doubt. The good-natured and hospitable Finns of the Soviet-Russian period only by their manifestation resembled an extremely embittered people, with objects that we fought more often and preserved than with any others in the XX study.