Russia threatens Sweden if it joins NATO

[eric]

[Dylan]

So. Putin is trying to distract from the fact that he has run Russia's economy into the ground.

Some Finnish ladies stayed with me recently. Over some drinks we discussed russia and russian aggression. They were legitimately desperate-sounding when they said they hoped the U.S. would interfere if russia took action against Finland.

Russia has its neighbors scared.

[eynon81]

we badly need a post-war social renaissance.

[John Galt]

sweden declared neutrality like the swiss. they've been neutral ever since the swedish steel failed at the time of napolean and they lost a third of their country. they won't join nato.

finland on the other hand... finland, once lost to russia from sweden, and it borders russia and has had russian agression exerted on it multiple times. there may even be a referendum soon regarding nato membership. with the crimean annexation i think it makes sense for finland who shares a border with russia to join the coalition. then the only eastern borders with russia (proper, not including that bit of russia on the baltic) would be belarus and ukraine not being in nato

still, even if not in nato, if finland was attacked i think the swiss would wake from their neutrality. and i do think europe would respond. i don't think putin is that stupid

[Dylan]

Putin is pretty deranged man. I don't think he's a rational actor.

[Dylan]

Which is probably why conservatives adore him. Irrational aggression is basically the title of their foreign policy.

[John Galt]

[eric]

[Libertarian602]

Conservatives adore Putin. Swing and a miss.

[exploited]

I don't really understand this "shift in public opinion" nonsense. At most, 4% more Swedes want to join NATO then did two years ago. 14% more than three years ago. Still an absolute minority, and given the margin of error, the small change that sparked the article may not even exist.

Further, how is this a threat? If a country so close to Russia joins an alliance literally created to fight Russia, of course Russia is gonna dedicate some military resources to that potential threat. I mean that is just a simple, unavoidable action that ANY rational actor would take.

It's hard to watch you guys continuously get all worked up about basic geopolitical posturing. I mean good Lord.