![\"Finnish](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/03\/26\/15\/55835899-10655031-image-a-1_1648308992438.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFinnish president Sauli Niinisto (right) met with Boris Johnson (left) at Number Ten this month<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Finnish](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/03\/26\/15\/54796955-10655031-Finnish_PM_Sanna_Marin_has_taken_a_hard_line_against_Moscow_and_-m-5_1648309615553.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFinnish PM Sanna Marin has taken a hard line against Moscow and supports tougher sanctions<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/03\/26\/15\/55836175-10655031-image-m-4_1648309505669.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nWere Finland to join NATO, it would become the sixth state to share a land border with Russia<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
![\"Vladimir](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/03\/26\/15\/52499095-10365011-Putin_has_demanded_cast_iron_guarantees_that_Ukraine_is_barred_f-a-2_1648308961921.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nVladimir Putin has expressed his fear of NATO encirclement around Russia, warning Finland and Sweden they would be met with ‘military and political consequences’ should they join NATO.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
‘Even some important society functions can be disrupted.’<\/p>\n
The president made the striking comments as a record majority of Finns\u00a0now support joining\u00a0NATO, despite Russian warnings against the idea.<\/p>\n
Public support for Finland’s entry was 62% earlier this month, up from 53% at the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Last month Russian foreign affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Finland and Sweden risk ‘military consequences’ if they launch a NATO accession bid.<\/p>\n
She said: ‘Finland and Sweden should not base their security on damaging the security of other countries.<\/p>\n
‘Their accession to NATO can have detrimental consequences and some military and political consequences.’<\/p>\n
If Finland were to join the alliance, it would become the sixth member of the alliance to share a land border Russia – further escalating Kremlin fears of NATO ‘encirclement’.<\/p>\n
Yet any potential NATO entry bid by Helsinki won’t be the president’s decision.<\/p>\n
Although Finland’s president is technically in charge of foreign policy, the role is now mostly constitutional.<\/p>\n
Prime minister Sanna Marin – who has championed a tougher sanctions regime against Moscow and said Finland’s position toward NATO ‘will change’ as a result of the war in Ukraine – is far likelier to lead any possible Finnish bid.<\/p>\n
Marin’s tough view towards the Kremlin has made her one of the West’s most hardline leaders.<\/p>\n
She has repeatedly refused to rule out a Finnish application to join the alliance –\u00a0unlike Ukrainian president Zelensky.<\/p>\n
![\"Finland's](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/01\/04\/00\/52499119-10365011-Finland_could_request_to_join_NATO_its_president_has_said_in_def-a-159_1641254428197.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"Finland](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2022\/01\/04\/00\/52499053-10365011-Finland_and_Russia_fought_a_brief_but_bloody_war_over_their_shar-a-153_1641254425233.jpg\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nFinland and Russia fought a brief but bloody war over the winter of 1939-1940 in -43C climes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
What Finland and Ukraine do have in common are testy relations with Russia: Finns are proud of the defence of their country against Stalin’s aggression in the Winter War of 1939 and 1940.<\/p>\n
Facing up to 750,000 invading Soviet troops in -43C temperatures, a Finnish army half that size held off a Russian invasion for three months until it agreed a ceasefire.<\/p>\n
source:dailymail<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finland\u00a0could face mass cyber attacks and even a Russian invasion if it tries to join\u00a0NATO, the country’s president has warned. President Sauli Niinisto said Moscow would send a ‘robust’ military force into the country and ‘destabilise Finnish society’ through cyber hacks should Helsinki ask to enter the Western military alliance. Niinisto added:\u00a0‘We don\u2019t even know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":18875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[6728,8217,11394,9204,5090,157,12283,4024,6197,5336,8057,5335,6396,5252,1152,8029,3874,11743,6632,5572,5340,4802,11973,2627,3805,6089,3174,6524,71,5807,3457,5217,5713,6454,5655,1378,6675,9178,5180,5555,694,5251,3954,8964,36,594,2472],"class_list":["post-18874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-alliance","tag-army","tag-attacks","tag-border","tag-boris","tag-boris-johnson","tag-ceasefire","tag-common","tag-cyber","tag-cyber-attack","tag-fear","tag-finland","tag-hybrid","tag-invasion","tag-kremlin","tag-land","tag-lead","tag-majority","tag-maria-zakharova","tag-military","tag-moscow","tag-nato","tag-one","tag-pm","tag-president","tag-president-zelensky","tag-prime-minister","tag-prime-minister-sanna-marin","tag-putin","tag-risk","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-sanctions","tag-sanna-marin","tag-security","tag-sweden","tag-technology","tag-troops","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war","tag-will","tag-winter","tag-world","tag-who","tag-zelensky"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}