this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago

I'm just surprised they still have equipment to build up there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Just more money laundering by the Mob there. No actual plans to invade. they will use it as a way to cost Finland money.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 hours ago

With what? Motorcycles and Ladas?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 hours ago

Here we go boys! WW3! Lets watch the destruction of the world order AGAIN. I wonder which side Trump will take? The allies he hates or the autocrat he adores?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 8 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 hours ago

卄乇ㄥㄥ ㄚ乇卂卄 乃尺ㄖㄒ卄乇尺

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

Nobody seems particularly alarmed by this, least of all Finland. I doubt Putin is going to go from losing a war against Ukraine to losing a war against Ukraine and Finland and the rest of NATO too. Seems like this "buildup" has been there for a while and is only growing presumably because Ukraine is getting really good at striking targets inside of Russian borders.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Even when Finland was "neutral", we always knew the enemy is in east, and if they were west, they were trying to flank.

Whole Finnish infrastructure is build on expectation of Russia again attacking us. Hopefully we won't forget that, now that we are part of NATO, because it makes us less easy target.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago)

It’s being reported by the “Moscow Times” so that alone makes me dubious about this even being real

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 hours ago

How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man!?

[–] [email protected] 26 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

So if the Russia sycophants use "NATO on their doorstep" as an excuse to forget Russia to invade ukraine wouldn't this build-up on the border of a NATO country give NATO the same excuse? I'm sorry I have trouble keeping up with the "logic" of Russia apologists.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 13 hours ago

You dont have to. It is all vibe based ideology. Like all good fascist propaganda.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

If they're going to attack a NATO member (humongous if), it definitely isn't going to be Finland. It's gonna be one of the Baltic states.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

I kinda hope they'd be dumb enough to get their shit kicked in by Finland AGAIN. Gonna find an entire nation of Simo Häyhä's waiting, this time with javelins and drones.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah they are really forgetting how badly they'll get their asses beat. Because not only do they have NATO, they have the EU, plus most of the british commonwealth, and so many more countries ready to come fuck their plans up incredibly hard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

gotta be bluster.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Their bases have been about where the tent villages now are for decades. They're training grounds for new conscripts until they're moved to die in some ditch in Ukraine. Who knows why they're more active now, maybe Ukraine is getting pretty good to hit their targets deep in Russia so they need to move further away from the front line or whatever.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Finland, beyond the fact that our border just happens to be nearby. And should they actually try start an active war with NATO from there, these grounds are mostly in reach of Finnish artillery and our artillery is pretty damn efficient on what they do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 12 hours ago

they were dumb enough to try it in the winter war.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

I somewhat vaguely remember reports from the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine and talks about Finland joining NATO, that the region around Murmansk is a somewhat problematic spot for Russia. They have a huge military presence there and it's also one of their bases equipped with atomic bombs that threaten the west/NATO. But on the other hand land based access is only possible along the long and thin stretch of land along the Finnish border in an area that presumably is hard to defend.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Murmansk is few hundred kilometers from Finnish border and it's been there for "a while", it's no more bigger problem now than it has ever been. And Norway border is slightly closer than ours and Norway has been a NATO country for quite a while.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, there's the border to Norway (and thus NATO) nearby. But look at the map. There's a small part of border with Norway and a huge border with Finland, which was a 'neutral' border back then. Now it's all NATO.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago

which was a ‘neutral’ border back then

There's quite a few unmarked graves along that border and immense effort from my countrymen to keep the border where it is. It hasn't been "neutral" for too long. And being prepared to keep that border where it is plays a part on why our president from a small country is on discussions with Ukraine, EU leaders and that orange clown across the pond today.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Right, it gets into Russia's navy problem, which they've had for centuries and have never had a very good solution. Murmansk is one of the few (only?) ports they have that can reliably get ships out to the Atlantic. Black Sea ports have to go through the narrow channel at Istanbul (controlled by a NATO country, Turkey), and then you have to go through Gibraltar (England) or the Suez Canal (Egypt) (and you'd have to go around Africa if you go that way).

St Petersburg and Kaliningrad are on the Baltic sea, which is surrounded by NATO countries now. Even before then, the narrow opening in the North Sea could be easily blockaded.

Everything else is too far away. The sheer size of the country is both Russia's greatest defense and their biggest headache.

See also, this Drachinifel video about the Russian Baltic Fleet during the Russian Japanese War, where the fleet traveled the long way around, nearly starts a war with England, shoots up a bunch of civilian vessels and themselves, only to be curb stomped by the fledgling Japanese navy once they finally got there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mdi_Fh9_Ag

Yeah, Czar Nicky Two was a bad ruler. Putin has made some boneheaded decisions, but he's a political genius next to Nicky.

I once told my wife "I love you more than Russia loves warm water ports" and they were absolutely smitten with the nerdiness. Which is why I married them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

This is why they invaded Afghanistan in the first place. Their next step after what they thought would be a quick toodly-doo over the Afghanis was presumably to take a piece out of Pakistan in order to get a warm water port on the Arabian Sea.

It's also worth noting that you lumped St Petersburg and Kaliningrad together somewhat, but they are vastly different. While St Petersburg has challenges getting to open ocean, it's not the full-on exclave that Kaliningrad is, completely surrounded on all sides by the baltic states. I'm sure you know all of this, so this is for folks that don't. It wasn't entirely clear from the way you worded it.

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