{"id":13491,"date":"2022-05-18T06:25:44","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T13:25:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=13491"},"modified":"2022-05-18T06:26:45","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T13:26:45","slug":"how-putins-war-in-ukraine-backfired-and-fueled-natos-nordic-expansion-nbc-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=13491","title":{"rendered":"“How Putin\u2019s war in Ukraine backfired and fueled NATO\u2019s Nordic expansion”, NBC News"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Patrick Smith, May 18, 2022<\/span><\/p>\n

In three short months, analysts say, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reworked European security for decades to come \u2014 and not in Putin\u2019s favor<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Things have not gone to plan for Vladimir Putin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In December, the Russian president<\/a> demanded that Ukraine ditch its bid to join NATO, the Transatlantic military alliance founded after WWII to counter the power of the Soviet Union<\/a>, and that NATO forces retreat from Russia\u2019s western flank.<\/p>\n

Instead, with Putin\u2019s military suffering stumbles and <\/a>setbacks<\/a> on the ground in Ukraine, his grander geopolitical goals are also falling apart.<\/p>\n

Far from discouraging NATO expansion, Russia\u2019s actions look set to double the length of\u00a0its border with member nations, from the Arctic Circle to the Baltic Sea, and create a new frontier in its clash with the West.<\/p>\n

Finland and Sweden formally submitted their membership applications in Brussels on Wednesday morning, ending long-held neutral stances that for Stockholm stretches back 200 years to the time of Napoleon.<\/p>\n

The process of joining will take months and must be ratified by NATO\u2019s 30 members. One member, Turkey, has already threatened to block both countries\u2019 bids: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday criticized Sweden and Finland for their stance on terrorism, a possible veiled reference to perceived inaction over Kurdish fighters who have sought refuge in the two countries.<\/p>\n

However, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has warmly welcomed the dual application and said over the weekend that \u201cTurkey has made it clear that their intention is not to block membership.\u201d Germany\u2019s top diplomat, Annalena Baerbock, has also voiced confidence\u00a0 the pair will be admitted.<\/p>\n

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The Finnish and Swedish ambassadors to NATO formally handed in the two countries’ applications in Brussels early Wednesday.<\/span>Johanna Geron \/ AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It looks clear that two more nations with advanced, well-funded, multipurpose armed forces will soon join the mutual assurance of NATO\u2019s Article 5, under which all member nations must defend an attack against another.<\/p>\n

Finland had become such a byword for neutrality that the \u201cFinlandization\u201d of Ukraine was discussed as a compromise solution that Russia might accept to stave off war. Now Finland \u2014 and its Swedish neighbors \u2014 could be key new members of the Western alliance.<\/p>\n

In three short months, analysts say, the invasion of Ukraine has reworked European security for decades to come \u2014 and not in Putin\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a total political and geostrategic game-changer, for northern Europe at least,\u201d said Kate Hansen Bundt, secretary general of the Norwegian Atlantic Committee, a think tank based in Oslo.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin\u2019s getting the opposite of what he demanded in December. He wanted to close NATO\u2019s open door, and now he has opened it wide for two new members.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Finnish reservists take part in shooting practice in Taipalsaari, close to the border with Russia, in March. <\/span>Lauri Heino \/ AFP – Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The Russia-Ukraine War has produced no shortage of potentially defining moments in modern European history.<\/p>\n

Germany rewrote its defense policy with a $113 billion spending spree<\/a>, the European Union and its allies are pledging to ban Russian oil<\/a>, and the West is funding the Ukrainian resistance in the east of the country<\/a> after Russia aborted its initial goal of taking Kyiv and other major cities.<\/p>\n

But the enlargement of NATO encapsulates perhaps the most important change so far: the uniting of Europe against an despotic and expansionist Russia, following years of appeasement and the hope that Russia would change or could be tamed through free trade.<\/p>\n

Alexander Stubb, a former prime minister of Finland, has advocated NATO membership for 30 years. \u201cBetter late than never,\u201d he told NBC News.<\/p>\n

\u201cPutin is essentially creating a divide in Europe \u2014 on one side you have an isolated, authoritarian, aggressive, imperialist and revisionist Russian, and on the other you have more or less 40 European democracies that believe in cooperation, fundamental human rights and the rule of law,\u201d he said by phone last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not about NATO, this is about European values. Putin cannot stand liberal Western values. He thinks they are decadent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Putin ‘downplaying’ after initial threats as Finland, Sweden continue NATO membership push<\/a><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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