Putting the economy aside, the *** of Russia's invasion of Ukraine should be Finland and Sweden joining NATO.
Of all the countries bordering Russia, Ukraine is the most troublesome, followed by Finland. Finland's 1,340-kilometre-long border with Russia is difficult to defend due to its complex terrain and sparsely populated terrain.
To make matters worse, St. Petersburg is only more than 400 kilometers from the Finnish border, which is not only the second largest city in Russia, with a population of more than 5 million and an economy of 5%, but also Russia's largest port on the Baltic Sea, accounting for about half of the total import and export volume.
This also means that Finland has the geographical ability to threaten Russia without the use of nuclear **.
Of course, this threat is only theoretical, because historically Finland's population was only about 3 million, and even today it does not exceed 6 million, while Russia is almost 27 times the population of Finland, and the two sides are not at all an order of magnitude.
So the best solution for Russia is to turn Finland into a buffer zone, and at worst to keep Finland militarily neutral, because once Finland falls into Russia's hostile countries, then they can use Finland's geographical location to threaten Russia's core cities, as Mustache did back then.
Russia's hard wound is the European part to the west, which is a vast plain, with no danger to defend, and Moscow is surrounded by mountain barriers, but there is not even a decent big river, which is very suitable for mechanized troops to play interspersed with large detours.
Therefore, once a great power rises in Europe in history, they will attack Russia after fighting Western Europe, and on the contrary, as long as Russia has sufficient martial virtues, it will definitely find a way to expand its buffer zone to the west.
From the 18th century to the end of World War II, every 33 years, Russia was harassed by the Western Powers, and in less than 15 years, Russia launched a war of aggression.
This forms a perfect chain of suspicion, no matter who the neighbor is, the subconscious of the ** person either cripples it or takes it down.
It is not so much that the expansion of territory is the bottom of Russia, but that the geopolitical pattern has created a sense of strategic urgency.
Russia's geo-fear of Finland dates back more than 200 years to 1808, when Finland was part of Sweden.
Fearing that the British Royal Navy would threaten St. Petersburg, the ** demanded that Sweden close all ports open to Britain and completely exclude British ships from the Baltic Sea.
Sweden did not agree, so the Russian emperor found an excuse to invade Finland, and in less than a year defeated Sweden, occupied the entire Finnish region, in 1809, Sweden was forced to cede Finland to the Russian Empire, until the October Revolution broke out in 1917**, Finland barely gained independence.
But only in the past 20 years, the geopolitical fear of ** people has been awakened again by the mustache.
In September 1939, after the partition of Poland by the United Germany, Stalin demanded the establishment of Soviet military bases in the three Baltic states and Finland.
The three Baltic countries did not have the confidence to bargain at all, so they simply agreed to the work arrangement of Big Brother, and only Finland said that it needed to fight for it again, although some concessions were made, but it was far from meeting the expectations of the Soviet Union.
So on November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union launched an attack on Finland, but the result was that 500,000 Soviet troops were educated by 120,000 Finnish guerrillas.
In the end, the Soviet Union still used a Russian-style victory to force Finland to sign the "Moscow Peace Treaty", Finland maintained its overall independence, and ceded more than 9% of the territory, including the second largest city Vyborg, and the Soviet Union used more than 400,000 ** in exchange for a buffer zone of dozens of kilometers in Leningrad (St. Petersburg).
In March 1940, the Soviet-Finnish armistice, the Soviet Union turned around and annexed the three Baltic states, although Finland declared neutrality and did not agree to an alliance with Germany, but in private had to passively take refuge in the mustache, and with the help of Germany, it quickly established a modern army, or a water of German equipment.
Therefore, after the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, Finland not only allowed the German army to attack the Soviet Union by the way, but also contributed to the siege of Leningrad.
So the second Soviet-Finnish war broke out, Finland urgently mobilized 1 6 people into the battlefield, and soon took back their original land, and the two sides then stalemate for more than three years, until September 1944, when the mustache was gone, Finland had to face the fact that it was defeated again.
According to the terms of the new treaty, Finland not only spit back all the land it had taken back, but also paid the Soviet Union a huge amount of compensation of 300 million (US dollars) for six years after the war.
The two wars made Finland fully aware that the best way not to be annexed by the Soviet Union was to be quiet and neutral, so during the entire Cold War, Finland never participated in the Marshall Plan, nor did it accept any assistance from the United States, let alone join NATO or Warsaw as cannon fodder.
It was not until after the collapse of the Soviet Union that Finland joined the European Union in 1995, and it was economically aligned with Europe, but still maintained its independence militarily, with the core principle of avoiding provoking Russia and being honest and honest.
However, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the geopolitical fears of Finland and Sweden have been awakened again, and a letter of application from the two countries has been sent to NATO headquarters, the military balance in the Baltic Sea has been completely broken, and Russia's geopolitical dilemma has once again been put on the bright side.
Don't look at Finland's population of less than 6 million, the standing army is less than 30,000, but their reserve is close to 1 million, accounting for almost 1 5 of the country's population, and the number of troops in wartime can explode to 280,000 in an instant.
In addition, although Finland did not join NATO before, it has maintained deep cooperation with NATO in military exercises and arms purchases.
Finland currently has around 1,500 artillery pieces and rocket systems, surpassing the United Kingdom and having one of the largest artillery arsenals in Europe. 650 tanks of various types, more than 1,000 armored and personnel carriers, including 200 German Leopard 2 main battle tanks. Finland's air force has 64 Hornets (F-18 fighters) and plans to replace them all with American fifth-generation fighters F-35A in 2026, 650 missiles of various models and compatible with NATO's NASAMS 2 air defense system.
Sweden has the world's most advanced conventionally powered submarines, ** frigates and more than 70 Gripen fighter jets, and their production of Franco-German anti-tank missiles currently ranks second in the world.
You must know that the number of fourth-generation fighters in Russia is about 900, most of which are old models such as Su-27, and the upgrading of equipment has not been completed, and the only Su-35 that can reach the level of four and a half generations is more than 100 at full duty, and the fifth-generation fighter Su-57 is less than 30 so far.
Theoretically speaking, the combination of Finland and Sweden can completely wrestle with the Russian Air Force, even if NATO does not help, the strength of the two sides is five to five, although the ground forces of the two countries are almost meaningless, but the comprehensive strength is far superior to Ukraine by several orders of magnitude.
Therefore, Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO is a strategic poverty alleviation, which not only greatly enhances NATO's military superiority, but also compresses Russia's strategic space in the Nordic direction near the Gulf of Finland.
The first is that the Baltic Sea is completely blocked, because there are four straits from the Baltic Sea to the North Sea, three of which are controlled by Denmark, and the other Kattegat Strait is jointly managed by Denmark and Sweden.
The accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO is actually tantamount to turning the Baltic Sea into a swimming pool dominated by NATO, and the only areas that Russia can control are the Gulf of Finland and the waters near Kaliningrad.
In addition, the Baltic Sea itself is very shallow, with an average depth of only 54 meters, and it is very easy to lay listening devices on the seabed, which means that the Russian submarines have no privacy at all, and the maritime defense of the three Baltic countries will also be greatly strengthened.
More importantly, at the northernmost point of Finland's border with Russia, the Kola Peninsula is home to a large number of Russian strategic nuclear depots, which are not only home to multiple intercontinental missile silos, but also home to Russia's strategic bombers and strategic nuclear submarine forces.
Once NATO begins to deploy an advanced missile defense system in Finland, Russia's ability to restart the planet will also be greatly reduced.
But then again, Finland and Sweden did not join NATO to provoke Russia, let alone attack St. Petersburg in exchange for endless retaliation, their core purpose is one, to protect the security of the national territory and avoid becoming the next Ukraine.
In order to cope with Finland's accession to NATO, Russia can only increase its military presence in the border areas, and now Russia has terminated the border cooperation agreement with Finland, and Finland has gradually closed all Russian border crossings.
In any case, Finland and Sweden's accession to NATO is a foregone conclusion, and although the probability of flipping the table is very small, Russia's development space in Europe has been completely blocked, and the future strategic focus can only be placed on the sparsely populated Far East.
In 2022, Russia once declared that Ukraine's accession to NATO was unacceptable, but now Sweden and Finland have joined NATO, but Russia has not come out to shout.
This can only show that military strength is the fundamental guarantee of ***!
End of this article.