Farewell neutrality: Sweden and Finland

The Russian president has stampeded both Finland and Sweden, two neutral countries of long standing, into joining the NATO alliance, the very ‘threat’ that Putin claimed he was trying to drive away from Russia’s borders. Finland has a 1,300-kilometre border with northern Russia, writes Gwynne Dyer.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, pictured Feb. 7, 2022, in the Kremlin in Moscow. The Swedish and Finnish response to his invasion of Ukraine would have surprised Putin. He would see no connection between his invasion of Ukraine, a former Russian imperial possession that needed to be whipped back into line, and two independent countries that have not been in Russia’s sphere of influence for more than a century, writes Gwynne Dyer. Photograph courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Opinion

BY GWYNNE DYER

May 16, 2022

LONDON, U.K.—It’s easy to imagine Vladimir Putin coming into the shop marked ‘Sweden,' breaking some fine china accidentally on purpose, and growling: ‘Nice little shop you’ve got here. It would be a pity if something happened to it.’ But Sweden is not a pottery shop, Putin is not a Mafi...

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