Illustrative Image
Written by Eric Zuesse
NATO’s having won Finland as a member is the worst blow to Russia’s national security in decades, and it wouldn’t have happened if Putin had played his cards right. This fact will be explained here:
No one is perfect; and, as I’ve explained elsewhere (such as here) I believe that Putin’s track-record during his now nearly 23 years of being the leader of Russia is vastly superior to that of any leader of any U.S.-and-allied country during any portion of that 23-year period. However, I shall explain here why I believe that Putin’s public-relations errors regarding his handling of Ukraine constitute a major flaw in his leadership-record and produced Finland’s becoming a NATO member — and potentially the most dangerous one to Russia in all of Europe.
The most crucial thing to understand is why did Russia actually need to invade Ukraine? The answer is very simple (far simpler than Putin’s many and confusing statements about that). Putin’s many explanations never made clear the core reason: The U.S. Government has been planning to win a WW III by blitz-nuking The Kremlin so fast that Russia’s central command wouldn’t have enough time to press the button to launch its retaliatory missiles and bombers; and therefore immediately after that blitz-nuclear first-strike decapitation of Russia, the U.S. regime would be able entirely on its own schedule to then knock out virtually all of Russia’s retaliatory weaponry and so to win WW III with perhaps only a few million dead on its side and thus, finally, at long last, possessing (at a small enough cost in American lives so as to be attractive to the few individuals who actually control the U.S. Government) full control over Russia, which is the world’s most-natural-resources-rich country — which is why the U.S. regime was so set, for so long a time, on winning Ukraine as a NATO member. And this is also the reason why Obama finally grabbed Ukraine in 2014.
The ideal place from which to launch that blitz attack against Russia would be Ukraine, because it has the nearest border to Russia’s central command in The Kremlin, which is only 317 miles (511 km) away from Ukraine — a mere five minutes of missile-flying time away — from Shostka in Ukraine, to Moscow in Russia. A mere five minutes away from decapitating Russia’s central command. That is the real answer to the crucial question of why did Russia actually need to invade Ukraine? Putin never clearly stated it, and never focused on it; and, so, in both Finland and Sweden (and throughout Europe), Russia’s essential defensive invasion of Ukraine was instead widely viewed as being aggressive not defensive: aggression against Ukraine, instead of defensive against America (which has controlled Ukraine ever since America’s February 2014 coup there). Thus, both Finland and Sweden (on the basis of that false impression) joined NATO, and American troops and weapons will be pouring into Finland even closer to The Kremlin than had previously been the case — almost as close as-if Ukraine DID join NATO. Maybe Ukraine will be kept out of NATO, but Finland, which is around 500 miles from The Kremlin, joined NATO largely because of Putin’s PR failure regarding his invasion of Ukraine.
Just like in chess, the way to win the game is to capture the king, in war-strategy the way to win is to decapitate the opposite side’s leadership by capturing or disabling its Commander-in-Chief. The U.S. regime had started by no later than 2006 to plan for winning a WW III instead of to use its nuclear weapons only in order to work alongside Russia to PREVENT there being any WW III. During the George W. Bush Administration, neoconservatism became — and has remained since — bipartisan in both of America’s two political Parties. The only way that this “Nuclear Primacy” strategy can even conceivably be achieved would be via a blitz-nuclear attack beheading ’the enemy’.
Russia has in place a “dead-hand” system to release, automatically-and-instantaneously after being beheaded, its entire arsenal against the U.S. and its colonies (‘allies’), but the system can’t be tested before it’s used; and, so, whether it would function (which would require all parts of the system to function as planned) can only be a huge question-mark. Moreover: even if it would work, Russia’s central command would already have been eliminated; and, so, the dead-hand system is a dooms-day system in any case: it wouldn’t protect Russia. At best, it will result in M.A.D.: Mutually Assured Destruction. And if it fails, then Russia would lose WW III.
America’s capturing Ukraine, which it did in 2014 by Obama’s brilliantly successful coup that he hid behind anti-corruption demonstrations on Kiev’s Maidan Square, was intended to make it possible for America to checkmate Russia by positioning a missile in or near Shostka. This was why Putin had established as being a red line that America must not cross, Ukraine’s possibly becoming a NATO member.
On 17 December 2021, Putin buried in two proposed treaties — one delivered to Biden and the other to NATO — his demand for America and its colonies never to allow Ukraine into NATO, and he did this as quietly as possible and failed to explain to the public why Russia could never tolerate a possibility that Ukraine would join NATO. His proposed two treaties buried the entire matter of Ukraine, and mentioned “Ukraine” only once, in the propsal to NATO, by saying, “All member States of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization commit themselves to refrain from any further enlargement of NATO, including the accession of Ukraine as well as other States.” He gave no hint of why Ukraine was the only nation that was singled-out to be named. Both of the proposed treaties were intended to be understood only by the recipients, not by any nation’s public. They weren’t written so as to make clear to the public what the motivation behind them was — though both of them could have been. Neither Biden nor NATO were willing to negotiate about anything in those two documents. There was just silence for three weeks, and neither of the two documents was published or discussed in the ‘news’-media. The Kremlin did nothing to facilitate access to the documents even to the press. Putin himself wanted it that way; he handled this as strictly a matter of private diplomacy, not at all of public relations, much less of helping the public to understand the Russian Government’s motivation behind the documents.
Then, suddenly, and little reported or commented upon, on 7 January 2022, the AP headlined “US, NATO rule out halt to expansion, reject Russian demands” — every one of his demands. Putin now had no other option than to invade Ukraine to take it militarily so as to prevent any U.S. nuclear missile possibly becoming placed there — to do it BEFORE Ukraine would be already seriously on the road to NATO membership, because if he were to wait any longer, then it might already be too late — and there would then be zero chance once Ukraine would already be a NATO member.
He invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.
He had done no public relations in order to help the publics in The West to understand WHY he invaded. His explanations seemed to have been intended to resonate ONLY to his fellow-Russians, NOT to any international audience.
This was tragic because not only was Ukraine the MOST dangerous nation to be admitted into NATO, but the second-most dangerous nation to become a NATO member is Finland, which at Kotka is only 507 miles or 815 km. away from blitz-nuking Moscow (and that would be a 7-minute missile-flight-time away); and whereas Putin had done nothing in order to explain to their public that Ukraine was a unique and special case and that Russia at that time actually had no national-security worries about Finland, Finland’s public couldn’t see why he wouldn’t want to take their country too, now that Russia had invaded ‘democratic Ukraine’.
As is normal for the U.S. regime and its agents, they had long been working upon the Finnish public in order to stir them to fear Russia; and polling is always one of the tools that it uses in order to manipulate public opinion in such a target-country. On 28 January 2022, Helsinki’s MTV News headlined (as autotranslated) “MTV Uutisten survey: Support for NATO membership has risen to 30 percent, opposition has clearly decreased – ‘It would be safer with the West’”, and reported:
Opposition to NATO membership has decreased, while the position of more and more people is uncertain, according to a recent survey by MTV Uutisten. If Finland’s top management supported joining NATO, half of the Finns would already be on the side of NATO membership.
Based on a survey conducted by MTV Uutisten, 30 percent of Finns support Finland’s application for NATO membership. 43 percent of those who responded to the survey oppose applying for membership, and 27 percent are unsure of their position. …
The National Defense Information Planning Board (MTS) analyzed the support for NATO membership at the end of 2021. At that time, 24 percent of respondents supported applying for membership. More than half, or 51 percent, opposed applying for NATO membership.
Since then, Russia has presented a list of demands to the West, which included, among other things, NATO’s commitment not to expand to the east. The concern for Europe’s security has been increased by the heavy military equipment that Russia has moved near the Ukrainian border.
According to everyone, Russia’s actions are not yet so burdensome that they should apply to NATO. …
In recent years, in NATO polls, support has typically been close to 20 percent and opposition over 50 percent.
Based on the survey conducted now, the opposition is no longer as strong as before. In addition to the supporters of NATO membership, the number of undecideds has also increased. The difficulty of forming an accurate opinion is also evident in the comments. …
In addition to the current NATO position, the respondents were asked whether Finland should apply for NATO membership if the top government was in favor of it.
In this case, support for NATO membership rose from 30 percent to as much as [NO — TO EXACTLY] 50 percent [saying that on this question they’d trust that the Government’s leaders would make the best decision on this matter]. 33 percent of the respondents chose not to answer, and 18 percent could not form their opinion.
The majority of respondents would follow the government if it decided to join NATO.
That was before Russia invaded Ukraine — a country that Finnish ‘news’-media had already long presented favorably against Russia and as being a victim of Russia’s opposing Ukraine’s ‘democratic revolution’ at the Maidan Square in February 2014. No Finnish news-medium existed that indicated this ‘democratic revolution’ to have been actually a U.S. coup. Finnish ‘news’-media had censored-out all of that actual history. When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Finns were therefore terrified, and the Finnish Government — right along with Sweden’s, which had similarly been worked on for decades by U.S. and its NATO agents — promptly requested NATO membership. On 16 September 2022, Gallup’s polling reported that 81% of Finns and 74% of Swedes approved of their country’s joining the NATO anti-Russian military alliance. Prior to the invasion of Ukraine, the figures had been almost the exact reverse.
Presidential elections are expected to be held in Finland on Sunday, 28 January 2024, with a possible second round on Sunday, 11 February 2024. The leading candidate now is Alexander Stubb, who is one of Finland’s top CIA assets. In a 28 October 2023 campaign speech he said, “If I am elected president of the republic, I promise that Finland will support Ukraine as long as necessary. Ukraine is fighting for the whole civilized and free world – against oppression and tyranny. And that war it will win, has already won. Slava Ukraine! … Fortunately, Finland has now chosen its place. We are part of the alliance of Western democracies. The next president of the republic will literally be the international NATO president. … Our NATO path began to open with the Russian war of aggression. … I consider Russia’s attack on Ukraine to be the time of a new turning point in world politics.” (Actually, Obama’s 2014 coup in Ukraine was that.)
But already, on 18 December 2023, Finland and the U.S. signed a Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) enabling Washington to send troops there and store weapons and ammunition, up to and including nuclear weapons, at 15 locations in Finland. Drago Bosnik at South Front headlined “FINLAND’S NEW ‘DEFENSE’ DEAL WITH US EERILY REMINDS OF SIMILAR ONE WITH NAZI GERMANY”, and he wrote: “For Russia, this is particularly concerning, as Finland and Estonia, now both NATO members, are in close proximity to St. Petersburg, its second most important city.” However, St. Petersburgh isn’t actually a concern here any more than Miami was a concern when America in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis wouldn’t allow Soviet missiles to be posted in Cuba — Washington DC was the concern, and it was nearly a thousand miles farther away from Cuba than Moscow is from Ukraine. Similarly to JFK then, Russia’s worry now is how close Finland is to Moscow — not to St. Petersberg. And whereas Cuba was 1,131 miles away from DC, Finland is only 507 miles from Moscow. Putin never made clear that his concern regarding American nukes in Ukraine was the same as JFK’s was regarding Soviet nukes in Cuba — but twice as much so. If Putin had made that point clearly and often, then demagogues such as Stubb wouldn’t have been able to get the impact they did from phrases such as “Our NATO path began to open with the Russian war of aggression. … I consider Russia’s attack on Ukraine to be the time of a new turning point in world politics.” America has been the aggressor here — against Russia; Russia was by then forced, by America and by its NATO, to respond militarily, since all diplomatic efforts by Russia had been ignored by the aggressors. Just like JFK was not the aggressor in 1962, Putin was not the aggressor in 2022. Putin could easily have made that point, but he never did — he buried it in with a mess that in Western countries seemed like merely a blur. He handed the Russia-the-aggressor argument to America’s agents in Finland, and they ran with it and thereby easily succeeded to present Russia as the bogeyman, against which NATO represented safety. This was a major blunder by Putin — not just in Finland, but throughout The West.
By this time, Putin ought to be well aware that it was a huge blunder. As I noted with concern on 28 October 2022, “NATO Wants To Place Nuclear Missiles On Finland’s Russian Border — Finland Says Yes”. His blunder was blatantly clear by that time. And I already had outlined, on 13 May 2022, “Russia’s Weak Response to Finland’s Joining NATO” and presented there a strategy to replace that weak response with a much stronger and entirely diplomatic strategy for Russia to terminate the NATO alliance. I am surprised that Putin still, even to the present day, has failed to initiate some such policy. His passivity in that regard is stunning.
However, on 5 April 2023, since that proposed strategy wasn’t being even mentioned in the press by anyone but myself, I concluded that the time had come to lay out an alternative strategy, “Russia’s only safe response to Finland in NATO is to move Russia’s capital to Novosibirsk.” Whereas Finland (Kotka) is only 507 miles or 816 kilometers from Moscow, it is 2,032 miles or 3,271 kilometers from Novosibirsk.
Furthermore: Novosibirsk is 2,716 miles or 4,372 kilometers from Japan (Hokkaido). And it is 2,371 miles or 3,815 kilometers from South Korea (Seoul). Placing Russia’s central command in Novosibirsk would eliminate the danger from the U.S. regime and its colonies.
Obviously, if Russia’s capital city becomes relocated to Novosibirsk, then the Cold War (the danger that the U.S. empire poses to Russia) will effectively be ended. But Putin has initiated no new approach to addressing the problem that his own continuing blunder has largely assisted to cause to Russia’s national security.
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s new book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.
russia was drawn into a trap laid in 2014 instead of criticism praise should be given to mr. putins military defense from the nato/ukro hoardes. any words would have been of little value in the pre-planned destruction of russia. finland was already in the nato cards played with money and pressure ..we should be reminded hindsight is never 20/20 either.
the funny thing is that russia was nato’s best friend when yeltsin was president of russia. you cannot oppose the us and play “your cards” smartly and get away with it. it wasn’t putin’s fault. he’s been on that sloppy path ever since he decided to take on the us in the chechen war. from then on he was a dead man walking in the west, it was only a matter of time before the western press demonized him.
i would blame putin for different mistake he made. everyone knew that russia was on the brink of war with the us, except for putin, who still insisted on the rhetoric of “western partners” and the nonsense of the “minsk protocols”. remember, there was 1st referendum in donetsk and debaltseve victory but putin didn’t moved a finger. it costed 500.000 casualties in (special operation??) that could be avoided.
no problem, invade finland. the us won’t hesitate
you are wrong to blame putin. the us is to blame for everything. no matter though. this war needed to happen & russia will win.
i, and most people who had learned to read, knew and understood what was involved when the nazis took control of ukraine in 2014. your other point about the yanks taking out the command and control of the russian federation assumes that you and the yanks know where it is. do you really think that the russians are so stupid as not to have a secret second and third command and control not in moscow. finland fought with and supported the nazis in ww2 so it was no surprise.
i wonder where their leaders will be when the bright flashes appear overhead?
great article well written please send a copy to pres putin to consider btw why only one central command.. the size of russia may justify three the existing one near moscow, one in the center north (artic) and one in the far east.
i said the same thing like 6 months ago when it happened, but the pro-putin guys in the comment section said its no big deal that finland is part of nato! it’s no big deal that the united-states can now park nuclear missiles closer to moscow, than the soviet union could in cuba to washington in the cuban missile crisis, its no big deal they said!
and by the way pro-putin guys i’m still waiting for the war or my bad special military operation, to be over in like two months! now it’s two whole years, with the war not coming to some kind of conclusion to at least by 2025, by the russians own calculations! i tried to tell you brain dead pro-putin guys that ukraine would be russia vietnam and it would be a never-ending war, now are you guys starting to see and putin stupidity and tactical mistakes?
do you remember everyone last year how putin’s ally lukashenko was even surprised that the russians have not won yet, everyone even russians themselves have been amazed of the corruption, incompetence, cowardice of the russian leaders and military commanders, especially initially in the war. to be fair it seems like the russian military have come a long way since february, where they would send unarmored columns into ukraine, just for all of them to be slaughtered and or captured!
i think we all remembered the russian soldiers being captured and ukrainian forces calling their loves ones on their cellphones and making them listen as they tortured them! because of putin’s stupidity a lot of russian soldiers were needlessly captured and killed and that is facts not me just being anti russian! russia appears that they have got their act together now, but it took far too long for them to do so and after two whole years, the war should have been over!
or at the least the smo should have made significantly more progress, and i think this is what this article is trying to point out, putin’s and the russian leadership has made a lot of poor decisions this war, and some that made them look like complete cowards and pushovers, like letting the u.s. and norway blow up their gas pipeline, that will take an entire decade to be rebuild, besides all of the other craze sanctions the russians allowed the west to do!
so much derping. no wonder you had to reply to yourself four times. you packed a lot of propaganda memes into five paragraphs.
i don’t believe that nuclears can be used. the nation that uses nuclears will have the bad name forever.
such is your country and usa?
it’s always the same jewish trick. they feed and medialy support a person, give him success and fame. and when everybody gains belief and trusts in that person – they again wait and let it grow to a point nobody would expect this person to be a traitor. he then starts doing things absolutely not good for the people. but the masse doesnt realize it.
and then suddenly the jews switch the cards and (claim to) withdraw their support from him. and regardless if he is really an agent, or just a misused naive patsy – the outcome is – the jews win, the goyim lose !! already 2000 years the jews are playing this game – and still most of us have not realized their schemes. very embrassing for us.
and who is this “person” please tell me, i’m the dummy!
lol… isreal took the bait! they weren‘t prepared for what is coming. big miscalculation.
russia shouldn’t have been on a war of attrition to lose much more soldiers than the us did in vietnam. maybe they should have accepted ukrainians as their brothers, except the banderists, and try to convince the world that the us is evil and satanic and lauch a so called holy war against it together with their allies.
and the globalists would be stirring up nazis in russia now if putin accepted the globalist coup in ukraine and just let things be. russians in ukraine would be banned from speaking russian, crimea would be a nato base of operations and russia would be blocked from access. they would be trying the same thing in russia as they did in ukraine. instead of maidan it would be in red square. no. russia had to react when they did.
what a moron is this eric zuesse jezus go get another job stupid waste of time to read this idiot his expert?se
because someone criticized putin and rightfully so for its numerous mistakes in this war, and in particular with finland & sweeden joining nato, does that make eric zuesse stupid as you say? putin is like a god for you guys, i believe you really worship him as some type of idol, like how the americans do with trump! and if anyone says anything bad about your idol putin, you guys really go after them!
“putin is like a god for you guys” no not god but a prophet ( i red this actually -produced by people close to kremlin – in 2 different articles in rt,
this, like all of zeusse’s excretions, is utter rubbish. the notion that the elimination of a commander in chief paralyzes a state is infantile, us propaganda tripe. like the us state apparatus was in jeopardy if bush the lesser died. please. finland’s “public” determines foreign policy? just one absurd bit of flatus after the other from this clown.
well to kill the leaders will allow every other member of the elite there to return to their natural order of selling out to the usa like in 1990 and before.
zuesse has never heard of the nato baltic satraps, apparently.
finland was allied with germany in ww2, and helped in the siege of leningrad – now st petersburg. it wasn’t in the ussr and joined the eu in 1995. the fact it wasn’t in nato reflects more on the past desire of the eu to keep good relations with russia, it was on that side already. as rt etc. is censored anything said is warped by the west to suit their purposes. but given the situation now, how to move on? govts and allegiances can change!
criticism is easy when finland was embedded with nato. they will regret the us everywhere on the soil and now they have a massive target on their forehead.
president putin has stated the obvious fact that nato is an existential threat to russia. he also emphasized the fact that nato has placed offensive missile systems in romania, poland and bulgaria violating the nato russia founding act. the western lame stream media never reports the truth of russia’s security concerns.
on top of that the us ngos have completely captured these puppet minion states in europe. if russia had ngos like the us does the same lame stream media calls this russian propaganda. what else could russia do to “crack this nut” of us “soft power?” he’s done his best.
your article is boring and full of it from the very beginning, to the writer of the article @eric zuesse
the fact that all these things are still happening shows that just like the russian tzar empire and the sowjet union the russian federation has zero competence in public relations and how dangerous these are when wielded by the us or britain.
is finland closer to moscow than estonia? the finns have been hosting nato exercises for years and were always going to join as former allies of adolf hitler. sweden has always been de-facto nato members, they allowed german troop and logistics to use swedish railways to attack the soviets in ww2.
in total, finland and sweden contribute about 15 million people to nato, while estonia and latvia provide the shortest route to moscow. nato has just increased the area of operations they have to man and install infrastructure into, costing billions. russia meanwhile guard the same territory it always protects at no added cost.
je viens de parcourir cette analyse. un point de vue avec des manques manifestes. 1-à savoir que la russie ne peut pas dévoiler tout sur la stratégie opérationnelle et des possibles et ripostes 2- que les analyses ont été faites depuis longtemps sur l’ impérialisme américain et ses caniches se prosternant devant leur u -nique maître …dans le discours du maître capitaliste /impérialiste du premier quart du xxi …si dangereux 3- n’ ayons pas peur ….
eric, contrary to your opinion the first jupiter nuclear missile were deployed in turkey 1961 and jfk protested against soviet nuclear missiles in cuba in 1962, so this contrary to your text makes jfk not only aggressor but hypocrite too!
zeuss=moron….finand sweden amerikan colonies merely show nato to be weak irrelevant, culturally and economically coca colonized w zero sovereignty…russian exonomomy thrives—eu declining to 3rd world status
more complete nonsense from sweetie. if you want to know ask a juice!
sweden and finland are conquered slaves of the racist supremacist global jewish satanic askhenazi slave empire dictatorship and would have joined the jewish supremacist nato alliance anyway. any who think otherwise are the fools not putin. russia can just bomb those usa weapons in finland. the zio ussa will do nothing as long as the frist target of russian hypersonic nuclear missiles is israel.
i have to agree, hopefully putin comes up with some plan to neutralize the danger from finland sooner rather than later
the finnish president admits that the nato decision was made in 2013. until 1997, nato was actively courting finland, since 2012 the foreign minister has participated in nato meetings. this was not told to the people until 2022. the public was clearly anti-nato as late as 2021. the former defense minister revealed that the nato decision was made behind closed doors as early as 2014.
that is, when the eu made a three seas initiative to get ukraine’s battery metal deposits from the east and ukraine to nato. because ethnic russians voted “wrong”, the us and germany organized a coup in ukraine in 2014 that used fascist militias to help a pro-nato regime come to power. angela merkel confirms 2022 that nato wanted war from the start but needed time to prepare militarily and lead the situation to a large-scale conflict
in practice, finland was already in nato in 2014, and putin could not have done anything then or now. the west organized a threat image, which was a staged butska to justify joining nato. propaganda was incredible in finland. total media takeover. all the media repeated the same lie, no one told the truth about the dpr and lpr declaration of independence, the murders in odessa and persecution of ukrainian russians. not a word that there are no ukrainians living in the crimea
either the eu/nato cabal and their wannabe’s had their heads so far up where the sun don’t shine, or more likely they understood long ago what russia has been saying for over a decade they would do in response to us/eu treachery and they kept on that path anyway out of hypocritical arrogance. the finns can now enjoy their newfound source of worry and insecurity- they have earned it! putin made no mistake here.