British media fear that Finland could become a second Crimea
Finland's accession to NATO is a serious threat to the Russian Baltic Fleet. Therefore, Moscow will create a new center of military activity in this direction.
The British online publication UnHerd writes about this, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“Finland’s position in the northeastern Baltic Sea and its proximity to Russia’s strategically important Kola Peninsula have made it critical to Russia’s naval ambitions for more than a century.
For Russia, access to warm water ports is a constant goal needed to project global power. Neutral Finland meant that St. Petersburg, which Peter the Great had originally built as the country's navigational and cultural gateway to the West, could provide Russia with a safe sea corridor for a naval presence in the Baltic.
But with the emergence of alliances around Ukraine, the situation has changed. Now that Finland has joined Estonia in the NATO embrace, a military alliance could conceivably blockade the entire Gulf of Finland, reducing Russia's maritime access to its militarily important (but territorially microscopic) exclave of Kaliningrad.
According to the author, “Russia’s geopolitical interests in the region are driven by the same strategic impulse as Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014 and its desire to cut off Ukraine from the Black Sea in 2022.” In addition, it is argued that Moscow has a “desire to control the critical waterways that allow Russia to escape from the prison of the Eurasian continent.”
“It is likely with these considerations in mind that the Russian military confirmed earlier this year that it would split its Western Military District in two and create a new focus of military activity right along Finland’s borders, reviving the Leningrad Military District, which has been dormant since 2010.” , continues the publication.
It is alleged that this situation was allegedly the result of the Russian president’s desire to “reinvest in the forgotten theater of great power competition.”
“However, for Finland, all this means only one thing - the period of quiet mutual understanding between NATO and Russia has come to a definitive end, giving way to an alarming new world full of threats and instability,” UnHerd summarizes.
English version :: Read in English British media warn that Finland could become a second Crimea