Replies to post #463175 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[blackhawks]

Now Putin has a shitload MORE NATO........Finland's 832 mile long border.....on his doorstep. NATO is so clearly a defensive alliance, 70+ years and counting, that Putin has no legitimates concerns. It's a FAFO alliance, no more no less.

HELSINKI (AP) — Finland’s government said Thursday that it would extend the closure of its long border with Russia for another two months until April 14, because it sees no signs that Moscow was stopping its “hybrid operation” of funneling migrants toward the frontier with the Nordic nation.

Finland closed the 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) land border late last year after about 1,300 migrants without proper documentation or visas had arrived across the frontier since September — an unusually high number, just months after Finland joined the NATO alliance.

Most of the migrants hail from the Middle East and Africa. The vast majority of them have sought asylum in Finland, a nation of 5.6 million people.

The government said in Thursday’s statement that “instrumentalized migration” from Russia poses “a serious threat to Finland’s national security and public order.”

READ MORE https://apnews.com/article/finland-russia-border-migrants-b6a0fb20dea01f2280e5ef7367d7dbde

[brooklyn13]

By your logic of NATO being on Putin's doorstep giving him justification, you give free reign to the most anti-American activities of Iran. We did have, after all, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers on their doorstep in Afghanistan and, at just about the same time, hundreds of thousands of American soldiers on their doorstep in Iraq.

You're just carrying water for dictators with a flimsy excuse, the idea that Putin had some justification is the logic of his enablers. Ukraine voluntarily gave up all of its many nuclear weapons that were left there after the collapse of the SSSR, which led to the Budapest Memorandum of 1994, in which Russia was supposed to help guarantee Ukraine's security.

When has NATO ever attacked a non-aggressor nation? Putin's supposed rationale was delusional at best but more likely that of a mad wannabe empire builder.

[12yearplan]

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Ukraine has a right to use its Western-supplied weapons to defend itself against Russia, even if that includes striking targets within Russia's borders.

"This is Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine, which is a blatant violation of international law," Stoltenberg told Radio Liberty during an interview on Tuesday.

"And according to international law, Ukraine has the right to self-defense. And it also includes strikes against legitimate military targets, Russian military targets outside of Ukraine. That's international law, and of course, Ukraine has the right to do that to defend itself."
https://www.newsweek.com/nato-gives-ukraine-go-ahead-cross-putins-red-line-1872629

[DesertDrifter]

I seldom hear much about Turkey even though it is in NATO. And has built the world's largest army of drones. Probably a good thing that they seem to be sitting this one out.

[sortagreen]

Putin does have some justification for not wanting NATO on his doorstep.

It can be argued that he's more afraid of having free market economies on his doorstep. NATO has never shown any interest in taking any Russian territory. The idea that Ukraine would join the EU was more concerning to Putin than the idea of Ukraine that Ukraine would join NATO. First, Ukraine is rich in arable land and natural resources. And second the people are closely related to the Russians and a prosperous Ukraine would be stand in stark contrast to Putin's failures.