Contrary to Anne-Marie Slaughter’s advice (Opinion, May 6) that we should slow down the admittance of Finland and Sweden into Nato, the opposite is actually warranted — to speed up the process, not out of fear of a Russian invasion, but of a sudden Russian push for political if not physical domination.
Now, in fact, is an exceptional window of opportunity to secure our safety, before Vladimir Putin turns his attentions to the Baltic states or even on to us. Just days before invading Ukraine, Putin publicly laid out as
non-negotiable his ambitions to reinstate a Greater Russia along former Soviet lines. Only a cordon sanitaire of Belarus-like governments around Russia would suffice, it seems. No one in Finland or Sweden would want that, of course.
Putin has a penchant for securing footholds behind “enemy lines” as in Transnistria, Syria and Kaliningrad. Dominance of the Swedish island of Gotland (pop. 58,000) at the heart of the Baltic, might suddenly seem a necessity to an unstable mind losing its last inhibitions. Add to that Putin’s stated threats of using nuclear weapons in order to reach his objectives.
Against such threats neither Finland nor Sweden has any deterrence other than seeking the protection of a joint defence with those who actually share our basic values. The sooner we take that step the better.
In times like these, it seems odd that Slaughter still has not understood that the visual extension of Europe to the Urals on the map is not in the least matched by shared common values when it comes to decency, democracy, respect for basic human rights, independent information about reality and an independent legal system.
In Finland as well as Sweden we can no longer afford to take these values for granted.
Gustaf Almenberg
Dalby, Sweden
Letter in response to this letter:
Nato must consider risks of Arctic expansion / From Tim Reilly, Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK