Helsinki – The fate of three Nordic countries in the Scandinavian Peninsula: Norway, Sweden and Finland have been brought into sharp focus by the crisis in Ukraine due to their unique relationship with each other, the rest of Europe and Russia.
Both Norway and Finland share land borders with Russia, though Norway's is significantly smaller at under 124 miles, compared to Finland's 800-mile frontier. Norway, the Western-most of the three, is a member of NATO but is not in the European Union, while Finland and Sweden are in the EU, but not in NATO.
One senior European defense official told CNN that "if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, then we are already asking the question of who is next?" They added that, due to the open borders between the three, any compromise of the Finnish border would "traumatic" for the peninsula.
Active conversations, once viewed by Sweden and Finland as a risky act of provocation against Russia, are now taking place in both countries about joining NATO. And, along with their neighbor Norway, both are throwing non-confrontation out the window.
Finland and Sweden also plan to strengthen Nordic defense cooperation and establish closer bonds with the alliance and the European Union. Sweden, which does not have a land border with Russia.
Finland wants to retain the “NATO option” as a security tool. Finland, which has a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) land border with Russia, has responded to the Kremlin’s military build-up and muscle-flexing in the region by reinforcing its defense infrastructure.
Nordic alliance members Denmark and Norway have both upped their military presence and readiness in the High North and Baltic Sea. Denmark has provided additional frigates and four F-16 fighters to support NATO’s naval and air operations in the Baltic Sea area.
One senior European defense official told CNN that "if Putin succeeds in Ukraine, then we are already asking the question of who is next?" They added that, due to the open borders between the three, any compromise of the Finnish border would "traumatic" for the peninsula.
Alexander Stubb, a former prime minister of Finland, believes that joining NATO is a lot more likely because Putin has wrecked the careful balance Finland had maintained for years.
It must be hard for Putin and his accomplices to fathom, but their barbaric war in Ukraine has galvanized parts of Europe that had once bent over backwards to accommodate Russia into previously unthinkable action.
Whenever the horror ends, he might wake up to a very different Europe that is almost unrecognizable to the one he'd been able to bully with gas and rhetoric. And some of the most vocal opponents might be waiting right on his doorstep.
-CNN/Defensenews