Mystery over Finland’s President canceling dinner with Swedish King as a Russian fleet nearby
The President of Finland suddenly canceled dinner with the King of Sweden on a remote Finnish island yesterday, just a few hours after Vladimir Putin had smiled at young Russian entrepreneurs asking him to recover land stolen from Russia.
Putin had said to his young audience: ‘During the war with Sweden, Peter the Great conquered nothing, he took back what had always belonged to us, even though the whole of Europe recognized it as Sweden’s.’
“It now seems like it’s our turn to get our lands back,” he concluded with a smile.
A few hours later, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and his wife Jenni Haukio flew home by helicopter from the Åland Islands halfway through a day to celebrate 100 years of demilitarized self-government.
The presidential couple had been on their way to dinner with King Carl Gustav XVI of Sweden and Queen Silvia, but it was canceled.
The royal couple stayed and attended the opening of an evening concert but left halfway, Expressen reported.
Local news sites reported that Russian frigates had begun an exercise in the Baltic Sea outside the Kaliningrad enclave. NATO is also conducting exercises in the region.
Åland is a Swedish-speaking part of Finland located at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia, which separates the two countries.
They have been demilitarized since the Åland War in the 1850s between Great Britain and France on the one hand and Russia on the other, which took place against the larger background of the Crimean War in the Black Sea.
It would – together with the Swedish island of Gotland – be an important strategic battlefield in the Baltic Sea if Russia decided to take preventive measures against its Scandinavian neighbors due to their applications to join NATO.
King Carl Gustaf of Sweden (V) and President of Finland Sauli Niinisto (R) on Åland in Finland when the province celebrates one hundred years of autonomy
Vladimir Putin spoke on the eve of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where he said to his young audience: ‘During the war with Sweden, Peter the Great conquered nothing, he took back what had always belonged to us, even though the whole of Europe recognized it as Sweden’s.’
Åland is a demilitarized region in Finland located at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia, which separates the country from its Swedish neighbor. It would – together with the Swedish island of Gotland – be an important strategic battlefield in the Baltic Sea if Russia decided to take preventive measures against its Scandinavian neighbors due to their applications to join NATO
Putin’s reference to the various wars with Sweden where Peter the Great successfully fought the Swedish empire off the mainland will get shivers along the Scandinavian ridges.
With the news that the Russian Baltic Navy had been deployed from Kaliningrad earlier in the day, it is believed that the proximity of the Russian forces to the heads of state of Finland and Sweden on an undefended island may have caused their hasty departures.
The Zubr-class airbags of the Russian Baltic Fleet – hovercraft – and some corvettes had been seen on their way out of the heavily militarized Russian eclave Kaliningrad, which lies between Poland and Lithuania.
Although the guests at the 100th anniversary dinner for Åland’s autonomy were warned that their Finnish host might have to leave suddenly, they had originally expected to stay for the gala concert at the end of the evening.
Sources in Sweden downplayed the sudden departure of the king and said that the departure time was planned.
King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf, Queen Silvia, President of Finland Sauli Niinisto and Finland’s First Lady Jenni Haukio are depicted as the province of Åland celebrates one hundred years of autonomy, in Maarianhamina, Åland,
Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf left the islands abruptly shortly after giving a speech as part of the festivities, but before dinner and the gala concert
The Baltic Sea has turned into a hub for military activity in recent weeks, with two Finnish F / A-18 Hornet jets taking part in the operations of the Joint Expeditionary Forces training event with a pair of British typhoons over Helsinki today.
And while a hot war is raging a thousand miles south in the Donbas region of Ukraine, the Baltic Sea is also a hair-raising situation that could escalate.
Last month, Boris Johnson agreed on a major new military pact with Sweden and Finland that would see Britain come to their aid militarily if they were attacked by Putin’s forces while applying to join NATO.
Asked if British troops could be sent to Finland in the event of a Russian invasion, the prime minister had said: “Yes, we will help each other, including with military aid.”
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson and the Prime Minister of Sweden Magdalena Andersson signed documents on mutual military assistance when they met at her summer residence in Harpsund, Sweden, last month
Johnson and Andersson celebrated the renewed alliance between Sweden and Great Britain by going out on a rowing boat together
Putin’s comments about taking back land “belonging to Russia” have undermined much of the Kremlin’s obvious justification for launching a bloody invasion war, which they have called a “special military operation”.
While the official reasons are to “de-Nazify” and demilitarize Ukraine, a country they accuse of abusing Russian-speaking populations in the eastern part of the country, Putin seems to have inadvertently revealed that the invasion is little more than a war of conquest.
Putin has previously said he sees Ukraine as a historic part of Russia and Ukrainians as “little Russians”. It seems that he hates letting them tread a path that deviates from Russian domination.
Such thinking has its roots in an imperialist worldview from the 19th century, where great powers expand their power and conquer their neighbors.
With the establishment of the United Nations in 1945 and the Charter of the United Nations, it was intended that respect for national sovereignty and self-determination would prevent larger powers from conquering and devouring smaller powers, as was last seen in 1940.