heepst.bsky.social
Finnish architect rants about geopolitics, politics, and culture
Russia's war in Ukraine as seen from the frontline states
The future of Europe and global democracy
🇪🇺🇫🇮🇪🇪🇱🇻🇱🇹🇵🇱🇺🇦
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And Elon Musk and the Vice President
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Georgia and Moldova joining NATO is not a legitimate security concern for Russia.
Let's be real here -
Moldova.
Find it on a map and compare to Russia.
Russia's concern is that it will lose the territories it's occupied in Georgia and Moldova.
Invading again later will also be more difficult.
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Clever political move, Politico.
Stating a thing that everyone wants and then naming the country or countries that are standing in the way.
Can you pester Ireland next so that we can finally get rid of daylight savings time?
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They understand. They just don't care ♥️=🕳️
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Right, there's also Hungary
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Russia would hit a major identity crisis if it was forced to stop.
It doesn't know what to do if it doesn't do this ⬆️
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Getting rid of the Tories felt good. I want more of that
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Right.
He won't leave. He wants to stay and whine and ruin everything for others
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It's time to show Orban the door
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They're quite ugly. Really struggling to find something nice. Maybe 'siisti', clean.
Slang words in use:
'sapuska' (закуска, zakuska) grub
'revohka' (тревога, trevoga) a loud and messy bunch
'kohmelo' a hangover
'rokuli' (прогул, progul) skipping school or work
'ei hotsita' can't be arsed
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He can be a PM and *not* act responsibly.
Who cares what happens to the country so long as the media focus is on him and money comes in.
See the president of the United States for reference.
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We're in the same cycle we were pre Brexit. The attention Farage is given in the media is justified by the fact everyone is talking about him...because of all the attention he is given in the media.
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😁
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Russians, of course, don't believe in any people's agency at all.
The amount of money CIA must pay for people all over the world to show up to protest everyday
. . .
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This is a top 10 Russian propaganda line. Maybe top 5.
The West, if there is such a thing, needs to start educating people on how to recognize disinformation that's designed to make us work against our values and interests.
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ruoska, katiska, kassara
pirtti, murju, läävä
koni, luuska
savotta, raataa
vaino
putka, tyrmä
pätsi
toveri, porukka
piirakka, kiisseli, pirtu, krapula, lutka, luuska
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It also means stalking and tormenting.
At least two words for jail, one of which describes a dungeon.
The word for an oven also means hell.
A comrade and a group of people.
Desserts such as pie and kissel, booze, a hangover, and several ways to call a slut.
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There's brutal honesty in this one.
Turns out that Russia looks the same from St. Petersburg and Helsinki 👀
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Frontline states need to focus on deterring an invasion, cooperation with allies, and practicing rapid response.
We all need to brush up on our diplomatic game. We're not used to saber-rattling but it's honestly the only thing Russia responds to:
Being tough and following up on threats.
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I think we can do this without compromising on our values and principles too much. It just requires courage as you say.
Ukraine penetrating Russian territory in Kursk and Belgorod is smart. I have no qualms with it capturing Russian territory.
They can be traded for their own territories later.
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What they need is air defence and investments in domestic (Ukrainian) production of drones and missiles.
The longer the range, the better. We should not shy away from hitting targets deep in Russian territory.
Ukraine has been good about avoiding civilian targets so that's no concern.
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Another option I'd like to see explored is air support.
Ukrainians have been asking for a sky shield since day one of the full-scale war. It's getting difficult to do this now - again, because of the drones.
Tanks and evacuation vehicles are even easier targets than fighter jets.
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If we aren't, they're going to consider our troops a burden because they're going to have to train them as well as their own conscripts.
That's possibly a drain on their resources.
I'm in favor of sending troops keeping that caveat in mind.
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Ukraine is giving us this gift of time. They're putting their lives, their bodies on the line and all they want from us is our support.
They actually aren't sure that they want our foot soldiers anymore. It depends on how prepared we are for modern drone warfare.
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When you live in this region, you can easily imagine yourself in Ukraine's position.
My motivation isn't selfless. The next escalation of the conflict is likely to involve us in one way or another.
We'd like to stop Russia before, in Ukraine.
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Yes, what Russia is doing to Ukraine and especially civilians there is horribly unjust and unfair.
I feel physically ill about it. Shocked, appalled, disgusted, and angry.
Surprised, though?
No.
We always knew that this was a possibility. We knew what Russia was capable of and prepared for it.
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It's also important to note that in 1941, Holodomor and Stalin's purges had already happened whereas the Holocaust hadn't.
The USA is putting migrants in concentration camps today and it's still our ally. Will we know when they start executing people there? They're in a lawless zone.
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It seems to me that Western Europe and the United States have a historic opportunity to *not* abandon Eastern Europe for once and to hold Russia accountable for its crimes for the first time ever.
The United States is already failing that but the remainder of NATO still has a chance.
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The Allies on the other hand failed Poland which was their ally, and Finland which was neutral.
They did nothing for several times occupied Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania. Or Hungary or Romania which, unlike Finland, joined the Axis.
They pretended that Belarus and Ukraine didn't exist at all.
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...it was punished for being the only great power to do so even in the exceptional event when it did it right.
Finland's Jewish community was not harmed. Jewish and German soldiers fought in Finland alongside each other, if you can imagine.
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There was no reckoning after the Cold War either.
It's no wonder that Russians believe that atrocities are OK when they commit them, or that Germans were punished for being German, not what they did.
It's also no wonder that Germany won't put boots in the ground in this part of Europe because...
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The reason we're in this mess with Russia today is that Stalin's Soviet Union *didn't* get the same treatment Germany did after the war despite starting it together with Germany.
Unlike Hitler's Germany's, Stalin's crimes against humanity - those committed in peacetime and war - went unpunished.
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This is difficult for people who weren't caught between the two murderous dictators trying to divide Europe between them to understand or to accept, but not everything Germany did was bad and not everything Stalin did was good.
Moscow has been the biggest threat to us ever since it was founded.
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I understand why the Allies accepted Soviet assistance in defeating Germany. We did the exact same thing reversed, only we didn't have better options and were unlikely to defeat the Soviet empire.
We survived, and we consider that an achievement.
I'm not sure we would have done without Germany.
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The rest is WWII history as Russia and the Western world understands it:
That the Russians were the good guys and that Germany invaded Poland alone and that the Phoney War never happened and what happened in what Timothy Snyder calls the Bloodlands is irrelevant.
But this is not true.
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Ukraine is approaching a similar situation where Finland was left after the Winter War:
Bruised, severed, and anticipating another Russian attack without allied support or any security guarantees.
That's when Finland turned to its historical ally Germany. Not because it supported Nazism.
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As a Finn, I don't expect Germany to come to our aid ever again. The last time it did ended too badly.
Finland wasn't an Axis power. It was a young democratic state trying to defend itself against a Soviet invasion much like Ukraine is trying to repel Russian attacks today.
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Does it get the support it needs from its allies?
There is a political purpose to my bitter rantings. I want us to face what's happening together and hopefully put some pressure on our representatives to act.
The recent nominations to the EU Commission have been good. That's positive.
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...or worse, Trump's USA gives Putin the green light to attack Europe while threatening NATO allies militarily.
Trump has talked about both. Several times.
Nordic countries are our best allies. How's Denmark going to navigate supporting Ukraine, the Baltic states, Finland, and Greenland?