I think the Finns as well as the small Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are in the Rooskie corsshairs.
“We in the west need to reassess our relations with Russia … We have put in a lot of effort to try to integrate Russia into western institutions and we slightly idealistically believed that Russia could become a normal, liberal market democracy that relies on international institutions. It hasn’t. So we have to be both pragmatic and principled.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/18/finland-red-alert-expansion-russiaYes, at last some relevant truth! Russia has always struggled with its identity...it wants to be modern and Western and on par with the US and Europe on the one hand, on the other its history is one in which Western sensibilities and politics has always been alien to them, they thrive on the extremes of one strongman rule or another...totalitarian socialist or imperial monarchy...the effect is the same for those governed and those trying to conduct foreign affairs with them. It is like trying to civilize a 7th Century Savage, your average Islaminal is incapble of rational cohabitation with humanity, trying to make it so by force or wishing it so is not going to be successful. You need to find other ways of dealing with them. In the Islaminal case it is ending them, in the Rooskie case it is being strong and standing up to them.
As always the Western ability to maintain strength and unity of purpose is sometimes tenuous at best. There are no Reagan's or Thatcher's about this time...we have Hussein Obama and Angie Merkel and Francis Hollande...
Finland better start spinning up the training, a lot of Simo Häyhä's could be needed real quick!!!
