Finland became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday — a once-unthinkable step that significantly changes the geo-political landscape in Europe, making it far more volatile and susceptible to war.
Why do I say this? Look at a map. Finland’s membership more than doubles NATO’s borders with Russia and, as Axios reports, formally ends Helsinki’s decades of official neutrality.
This represents yet another in-your-face provocation to Russian President Vladimir Putin who, in launching the Russian invasion of Ukraine, vowed to block the alliance’s eastward expansion. Now he has NATO sitting on his massive border with Finland. It will be interesting to see if Finland allows U.S. troops to be deployed on its soil, which would be the ultimate provocation.