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| Why is Putin massing troops on the border of Finland? |
| 2025-05-13 |
| [DAILYMAIL.CO.UK] Satellite images have revealed how Moscow is bulking up its military presence on the Finnish border - in a chilling echo of pictures taken of Russian bases before Putin launched his war in Ukraine. Moscow is building troop accommodation, aircraft deployment infrastructure and refurbishing old facilities at key military bases, analysts have said, in a sign it is seeking to reinforce its capabilities in the border region. The pictures, which were obtained by Swedish broadcaster SVT from Planet Labs, suggest there has been activity at four locations inside Russia - Kamenka, Petrozavodsk, Severomorsk-2, and Olenya. In Kamenka, which is around 35 miles from the Finnish border and was previously undeveloped, more than 130 military tents capable of housing some 2,000 troops are said to have been set up since February. Kremlin officials hit back at Finland and Sweden's recent accession to NATO at the time with a vague threat of 'military-technical response measures' - which now appear to be well underway. 'When we applied for NATO membership, Russia said it would take such steps. We are now seeing that happen,' Sweden's Chief of Defence Michael Claesson said. In November 2021, US officials expressed concern over satellite images showing Russian troops massing on the border with Ukraine - a claim the Kremlin dismissed as unfounded. Less than four months later, Putin launched his full-scale war on Ukraine. Moscow has accused NATO of acting as an aggressor rather than a defensive alliance, and has repeatedly vowed to defend itself by any means, using GPS jamming and other methods. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #1 This one is silly. It's called realignment. The border was kind of neutral ish before, and now it is a NATO Border. Defacto American Border. What did NATO and Finland expect Russia to do? Finland has a 1,340-kilometre (830 mi) border with Russia, which upon accession in 2022-2023 more than doubled NATO's pre-existing border with Russia. |
| Posted by: mossomo 2025-05-13 12:44 |