“Finland always falls short when it comes to the question of how we can become resilient,” said Lanz, now turning his attention to the north. Claudia Major suspected that it was the historical experience of the 1939 to 40 Winter War with the Soviet Union and the 1,300 kilometer long border with Russia that gave the country an “internal resilience”. They know that “security is not something that can be outsourced to the state,” said the military expert. She referred to the widespread provision of bunkers and spoke of a “learning tourism to Finland” that has now begun.
There is a joke in NATO that it was not Finland that joined NATO, but rather NATO that joined Finland, added Florence Gaub. While here no teacher, no kindergarten teacher or no bus driver would know what to do in an emergency, in Finland everyone knows their place, says the research director at the NATO Defense College in Rome. “But Finland isn’t safe without the rest of Europe either,” Sanna Marin softened the praises, “we need each other.”
When Lanz played her threats that Vladimir Putin had made against Finland, which she had led into NATO, the ex-head of government reacted firmly: You have to make decisions based on your own convictions, not driven by fear. “That’s exactly what Putin wants,” said Marin. The same maxim applies to the Kremlin ruler as to schoolyard tyrants, she explained: show strength.
“How much is Trump still on NATO’s side?” Lanz finally turned to Claudia Major. In the Ukraine war, the USA “went from being a supporter to a moderator, at best,” said the scientist. But perhaps they are already on Russia’s side.
