Russia promises to “strengthen its military capabilities” after Finland’s entry into the Atlantic Alliance

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko threatened to “strengthen the Russian military presence” on its border with Eastern Europe and in particular with Finland, if NATO were to station military equipment there other than that which already exists. Finland joins the Atlantic Alliance on Tuesday, April 4, thus becoming the 31st country in NATO, which has seen the length of its border with Russia doubled. Finland adjoins the territory of the Russian Federation for 1,340 kilometres.

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This declaration is a bravado for the form: Alexandre Grushko knows NATO perfectly. He was Russia’s permanent representative to the Alliance between 2012 and 2018 and he knows very well that there is no need for NATO to deploy in Finland, which is already very robust against Russia.

Russia would be hard pressed to militarily reinforce anything other than Ukraine: all of its military effort is currently deployed there and is barely sufficient to maintain the front as it is. Moreover, some of the Russian units normally positioned near Finland were themselves sent to Ukraine, including the most unlikely ones. The Ukrainians even took Russian tankers prisoner in the Donbass who were none other than sailors, normally based in Murmansk, on the Barents Sea not far from Finland and who had hastily been transformed into tank pilots to be able to send to the Ukrainian quagmire.