Sweden and Finland are a Consolation Prize for NATO

Some people were trying to troll Russia with the ascendancy of Sweden and Finland into NATO…

But few people understand the fundamental difference between Sweden, Finland, the Baltic States and Ukraine. One only wonders why Russia didn’t do Moldova style Pridnestrovie republics in the Baltics to prevent them from joining NATO but I guess this has to do with Russia not really considering the Baltics to be that important. And the same applies to Finland and Sweden.

With Ukraine, the issue is that Ukraine is Russia’s cultural space. The area that is today the Baltic States became Russian only after the defeat of Sweden and subsequent divisions of the Rzeczpospolita in eighteenth century. Ukraine is the cradle of the Russian state, and while this might appear mystical and irrational to Westerners. The latter fail to recognize this psychological drive. Putin explained this in the interview with Tucker, I fell asleep twice trying to listen to it… Putin does not want to allow Ukraine to become anti-Russia.

Some out there argue that Peter the Great’s window to Europe was Russia’s historical mistake. Russia has for centuries tried to be part of the West, part of the European political landscape. Russia even imported the Marxist experiment from the West, and tried to cozy up to the West in the nineties. Only to find out that they have no place there. The idea to secure the Slavic core, and the idea to look East and South have finally come to the fore.

Ukraine is a fine piece of real estate. It has fertile soil, natural resources, and access to warm seas. The latter is very important for Russia because the Russians do not have many of those. And while the access to the global oceans from the Black Sea is controlled by NATO countries. The latter are bound by treaties to let Russian shipping through and as long as this happens, Russia does not care.

The issue with having Sweden and Finland in NATO is no big issue for Russia. These countries were for decades hostile to Russia, and it does not matter if they have a seat in the Brussels headquarters of NATO. Russia has one folder for NATO, and used to have a separate folder for Finland. Now Czechia is required to help Finland should it be attacked by Russia. Russia never had any territorial designs on these countries, it is not historically connected to them. One only wonders, whether losing their neutrality was the right step?