this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
370 points (97.4% liked)

World News

46665 readers
2644 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

Probably trying to keep their valuables far away from Ukrainian drones.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 17 hours ago

I'm just surprised they still have equipment to build up there.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 21 hours ago (2 children)

Nobody seems particularly alarmed by this, least of all Finland. I doubt Putin is going to go from losing a war against Ukraine to losing a war against Ukraine and Finland and the rest of NATO too. Seems like this "buildup" has been there for a while and is only growing presumably because Ukraine is getting really good at striking targets inside of Russian borders.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

It’s being reported by the “Moscow Times” so that alone makes me dubious about this even being real

[–] [email protected] 7 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Even when Finland was "neutral", we always knew the enemy is in east, and if they were west, they were trying to flank.

Whole Finnish infrastructure is build on expectation of Russia again attacking us. Hopefully we won't forget that, now that we are part of NATO, because it makes us less easy target.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 20 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 20 hours ago

Here we go boys! WW3! Lets watch the destruction of the world order AGAIN. I wonder which side Trump will take? The allies he hates or the autocrat he adores?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 19 hours ago

With what? Motorcycles and Ladas?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 21 hours ago

How many times do we have to teach you this lesson old man!?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 21 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 18 hours ago

卄乇ㄥㄥ ㄚ乇卂卄 乃尺ㄖㄒ卄乇尺

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago (1 children)

So if the Russia sycophants use "NATO on their doorstep" as an excuse to forget Russia to invade ukraine wouldn't this build-up on the border of a NATO country give NATO the same excuse? I'm sorry I have trouble keeping up with the "logic" of Russia apologists.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago

You dont have to. It is all vibe based ideology. Like all good fascist propaganda.

[–] [email protected] 78 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Their bases have been about where the tent villages now are for decades. They're training grounds for new conscripts until they're moved to die in some ditch in Ukraine. Who knows why they're more active now, maybe Ukraine is getting pretty good to hit their targets deep in Russia so they need to move further away from the front line or whatever.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Finland, beyond the fact that our border just happens to be nearby. And should they actually try start an active war with NATO from there, these grounds are mostly in reach of Finnish artillery and our artillery is pretty damn efficient on what they do.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

they were dumb enough to try it in the winter war.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I somewhat vaguely remember reports from the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine and talks about Finland joining NATO, that the region around Murmansk is a somewhat problematic spot for Russia. They have a huge military presence there and it's also one of their bases equipped with atomic bombs that threaten the west/NATO. But on the other hand land based access is only possible along the long and thin stretch of land along the Finnish border in an area that presumably is hard to defend.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Right, it gets into Russia's navy problem, which they've had for centuries and have never had a very good solution. Murmansk is one of the few (only?) ports they have that can reliably get ships out to the Atlantic. Black Sea ports have to go through the narrow channel at Istanbul (controlled by a NATO country, Turkey), and then you have to go through Gibraltar (England) or the Suez Canal (Egypt) (and you'd have to go around Africa if you go that way).

St Petersburg and Kaliningrad are on the Baltic sea, which is surrounded by NATO countries now. Even before then, the narrow opening in the North Sea could be easily blockaded.

Everything else is too far away. The sheer size of the country is both Russia's greatest defense and their biggest headache.

See also, this Drachinifel video about the Russian Baltic Fleet during the Russian Japanese War, where the fleet traveled the long way around, nearly starts a war with England, shoots up a bunch of civilian vessels and themselves, only to be curb stomped by the fledgling Japanese navy once they finally got there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mdi_Fh9_Ag

Yeah, Czar Nicky Two was a bad ruler. Putin has made some boneheaded decisions, but he's a political genius next to Nicky.

I once told my wife "I love you more than Russia loves warm water ports" and they were absolutely smitten with the nerdiness. Which is why I married them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

This is why they invaded Afghanistan in the first place. Their next step after what they thought would be a quick toodly-doo over the Afghanis was presumably to take a piece out of Pakistan in order to get a warm water port on the Arabian Sea.

It's also worth noting that you lumped St Petersburg and Kaliningrad together somewhat, but they are vastly different. While St Petersburg has challenges getting to open ocean, it's not the full-on exclave that Kaliningrad is, completely surrounded on all sides by the baltic states. I'm sure you know all of this, so this is for folks that don't. It wasn't entirely clear from the way you worded it.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If they're going to attack a NATO member (humongous if), it definitely isn't going to be Finland. It's gonna be one of the Baltic states.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I kinda hope they'd be dumb enough to get their shit kicked in by Finland AGAIN. Gonna find an entire nation of Simo Häyhä's waiting, this time with javelins and drones.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah they are really forgetting how badly they'll get their asses beat. Because not only do they have NATO, they have the EU, plus most of the british commonwealth, and so many more countries ready to come fuck their plans up incredibly hard.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago

gotta be bluster.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Just more money laundering by the Mob there. No actual plans to invade. they will use it as a way to cost Finland money.

[–] [email protected] 71 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Finalnd is a NATO member. Russia ain't fucking with NATO

[–] [email protected] 3 points 22 hours ago

If they do it wouldn’t be Finland anyway

[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They are "fucking with" NATO, historically, but not attack. Lots of "im not touching you im not touching you" on the borders and north sea. Military submarines where they are not supposed to be. Sudden declarations of artillery practice in international waters causing ship travel to reroute, then not actually doing practice...

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This needs to be said over and over - Russia is and has been at war with NATO for over a decade and NATO doesn't seem to even realize it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

At war for over a decade is a bit of a stretch.

The most direct confrontation was Turkiye shooting down Russian jets that flew into their airspace when bombing in Syria about ten years ago. During Azerbaidschans attacks on Armenia both NATO and Russia made sure to not get into direct contact. Nothing came out of it directly. The sabotages in Europe that are organized by Russia have been a thing since 2022, maybe late 2021 unless i missed some.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Depends on your definition of 'war'. They've definitely been in rightist America's ear about abandoning NATO since 2016.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago

So is the US in Europe, South America, Middle East, Israel in all of the West, EU countries in Africa, China all over the world....

Trying to influence domestic policies in other countries is shitty, but it isnt war. Otherwise we are already in WW3 since many years.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Well, we might find out soon enough.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 day ago (5 children)

Yeah no. Even if the United States sits out on it's dumb fat orange ass, Russia is not likely looking to pick an active fight with all of Europe when it's disinformation warfare can disassemble Europe from the inside out, given enough time.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (7 children)

An active fight? Yeah, that's not going to happen. A passive one, though? Might be an option. Carlo Masala recently published his new book If Russia wins: a scenario (No English translation yet). In it, he draws up a scenario where Russia, after defeating Ukraine, annexes a small Estonian town to test NATO's resolve in the face of a limited Russian aggression. He bases this scenario on the German Re-occupation of the Rhineland, during which German troops had they faced any serious resistance by allied forces would have had to retreat. In the book NATO members are divided and dismiss the Estonians request for help under Article 5.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

If even a cm of NATO is invaded and not acted on the alliance is worthless. For each nations safety, they must act or be defenceless going forward.

There is zero chance Russia is ever getting away with that, especially after burning all their bridges in Ukraine.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago (3 children)

There is zero chance Russia is ever getting away with that

Is there? Given the rather reluctant support of Ukraine, which is about just enough to keep them in the fight, I'm afraid that at least some NATO members would rather give away a symbolic chunk of land than start a military confrontation. And yes, that would be the end of NATO.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Romania and Poland had multiple opportunities to show something when shahed drones fly and crash/explode over their territory, they chose to do nothing every time. When these nations are so afraid of even destroying drones over their own aerospace muscovytes will invade whoever they want and other nato countries will just cower and pretend that everything is fine.

load more comments (6 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Here is the article this article is using for its source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/19/world/europe/russia-finland-border.html

Edit: Yes, the article isn't great, and clearly has a Russian bias. I was just linking it becuase its the original, and more complete source.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (4 children)

This is one of the least informed articles I've ever read. Phrases like "From Moscow’s perspective, the Russians need to bolster their defenses to protect themselves from NATO expansion" is just a cherry on top. Lmao.

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Finnish people love metal. I bet it helps them in battle. At least +10 attack.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

Russians storming a village with nice colorful houses. Suddenly the Deathmetal starts playing.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›