By Anne Kauranen and Essi Lehto

HELSINKI -Finland must apply to join the NATO military alliance “without delay”, its president and prime minister said on Thursday, in a historic policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Moscow said the move was a threat to it and warned it was ready to respond. But Finland’s neighbour Sweden is also close to a decision on asking to join NATO after decades of following a neutral path.

Russia has partly tried to justify its invasion of Ukraine as a means to protect itself from NATO‘s eastwards expansion.

However, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said Russian President Vladimir Putin was responsible for Helsinki’s decision.

“You caused this. Look at the mirror,” he said prior to Thursday’s announcement.

Finland, which shares a 1,300 km (810 miles) border and a difficult past with Russia, has gradually stepped up its cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a partner since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

But until the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine – which has seen thousands of people killed, cities razed, and forced millions to flee their homes – the Nordic country had refrained from joining NATO in order to maintain friendly relations with its eastern neighbour.

“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay,” Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in a joint statement.

“We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”

The Finnish parliament will debate the announcement on Monday. A majority of lawmakers have already signalled their support for membership.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said any accession process would be “smooth and swift” and that Finland “would be warmly welcomed”.

KREMLINWARNING

After the announcement, Niinisto spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who lauded Finland’s readiness to apply for NATO membership.

Russia, which had repeatedly warned both countries against joining the alliance, said on Thursday a Finnish entry into NATO was “definitely” a threat to it.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “NATO expansion does not make our continent more stable and secure.”

Everyone wanted to avoid a direct a clash between NATO and Russia but Moscow was prepared to make a “decisive response” to any side that tried to hinder Russia’s operation in Ukraine, he said.

Asked what form Russia’s response would take, he replied: “Everything will depend on how this expansion process of NATO plays out, the extent to which military infrastructure moves closer to our borders.”

Poland and the Baltics, which were once ruled from Moscow and are now members of NATO, welcomed Finland’s announcement.

“Finland decided to join the Alliance. NATO is about to get stronger. Baltics about to get safer,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said.

The head of the Estonian defence forces said Finland joining the alliance, and possibly Sweden, would boost NATO‘s maritime and air defences.

“The most important addition to our defence plans is awareness of maritime and airspace. We will have a common picture, we will have our warning time reduced,” Brigadier General Enno Mots told Reuters on Thursday.

Finland worries it would be vulnerable to Russian threats during an application process, which could take up to a year to be approved by all 30 NATO members.

On Wednesday, it struck a security agreement with Britain. And on May 5 the United States said it was confident Finland’s security concerns in an interim period could be addressed.

On Thursday the Pentagon said it would not be difficult to integrate Finland into NATO.

RAPIDCHANGE

Ukraine’s fate has been particularly disturbing for Finland to watch as it fought two wars with Russia between 1939 and 1944, repelling an attempted invasion but losing around 10% of its territory in the subsequent peace agreement.

The view among Finns on NATO has changed rapidly since Russia initiated what it calls a “special operation” in Ukraine.

Public support for joining NATO has risen to record numbers over recent months. While military non-alignment has long satisfied many Finns as a way of staying out of conflicts, Russia’s invasion of sovereign Ukraine has led an increasing number of Finns to view friendly relations with Russia as an empty phrase.

Sweden’s ruling Social Democrats are due to decide on Sunday whether to overturn decades of opposition to NATO membership, a move that would almost certainly lead to Sweden also asking to join the alliance.

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Meanwhile, that other great international competition, the Eurovision Song Contest, is still very much a club for Western Europe – the eastward expansion wouldn’t happen for more than a decade.

So Eastern Bloc countries are busily planning the fourth – and, as it turns out, final – edition of their own singing competition: Intervision.

The Intervision Song Contest ran from 1977 to 1980 and was held in Poland, replacing the long-established Sopot International Song Festival.

The format was familiar: Eastern Bloc countries connected via the Intervision television network could each send a performer to Sopot, where a jury chose the winner after watching the performances.

The first three victors were Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union and Poland, and, because other European countries (including the Netherlands and Spain) did send entrants from time to time, the 1980 Intervision Song Contest was won by Finland.

“It was live, and it was in a wonderful outdoor theatre. And it was very big, I think 15,000 people or maybe even more,” recalls Marion Rung, the Finnish singer who won that final Intervision Song Contest.

“It looked very much like Eurovision. It was a fantastic orchestra, and a fantastic conductor,” she told Euronews from her home in Helsinki.

Eurovision veteran

By the time she went to Intervision, Marion was no stranger to big singing contests.

In fact, she’d represented Finland twice at the Eurovision Song Contest, both times finishing in the top 10.

At the 1962 Eurovision in Luxembourg, she was the youngest competitor – aged just 16, she sang Tipi-Tii (which translates as Chirpy-Chirp) in a bright yellow dress.

“It was really overwhelming; so exciting and I couldn’t believe it. I was so very young at that time,” said Marion. “My mother used to sing when I was young and she helped me a lot with singing and how to perform things. We used to do all the things in our kitchen, so she helped me very much with how to present the song.”

More than a decade later, Marion was once again in Luxembourg, representing Finland for a second time at Eurovision – this time in a brown dress with orange stripes, the epitome of 1970s style.

“I was an established artist by 1973 and I was more secure about myself, I can say. We had a lot of press with us from Finland and it was the same concert hall from 1962,” she recalls.

The build-up to the contest saw cocktail parties and press conferences, including an event in a sauna with Swedish contestants The Nova, which Marion remembers as “quite interesting”.

“I had all my clothes on, and some of the journalists just had a towel. It was really funny! I don’t remember what the Swedish guys were wearing but I was the only one with all my clothes on – and a hat!”

Her song Tom Tom Tom – sung in English – went on to finish in 6th place, just one point behind Sweden, and it would remain Finland’s best Eurovision placing until Lordi won the contest in 2006 with Hard Rock Hallelujah.

Intervision Song Contest 1980

When the Eurovision Song Contest took place in spring 1980, Finland had high hopes for success, sending established actor and entertainer Vesa-Matti Loiri to represent the country with his song Huilumies – meaning Flute Man.

The undeniably catchy tune didn’t resonate with the judges, who awarded it just six points, and Finland came last out of 19 countries. So, in an attempt to salvage some national pride, Finnish public broadcaster Yle threw everything they had at Intervision.

Marion was chosen as the singer, and given 10 songs to perform in the national pre-selection show, with Hyvästi Yö – which would eventually be sung in English as Where is the Love at the contest – chosen as the winning track.

“I just remember thinking the whole week, as I always think of course, when I will go to the stage I will walk in like a winner,” said Marion.

She recalls there was no time to dwell on the East vs West geopolitics surrounding the contest; the focus was squarely on the music.

“When we were there, we didn’t really think about it. There were a lot of people and they took very good care of us. We lived in a luxurious hotel. We didn’t really walk around the city. I know what was happening outside but we were just working and discussing with all the other participants.”

Finnish singer Marion RungMarion Rung

Marion performed with a full orchestra and backing singers, dressed in a floor-sweeping black and gold gown, and the audience loved it. So did the jury, putting her in first place.

“There was a lot of applause and some shouting if I remember. It was really very, very nice,” she said.

And what was the prize for winning the Intervision Song Contest?

“If I remember right it was a lot of Polish money, which you couldn’t take outside Poland!”

Marion spent her winnings (locally, of course) on jewellery, before returning to Finland to renewed fame.

“In a way it was a terrible prize, but it has given me so much. It was wonderful, I felt like a queen everywhere when I came home,” she remembers. “There was a lot of media attention, and people, it was unbelievable how much they loved me.”

Since finding fame in the 1960s, Marion has become a household name in Finland and is still (in her late seventies) performing, with a series of Finnish festival dates and concerts on the calendar this year. 

The last days of Intervision

The year after Marion’s Intervision triumph, the contest was cancelled, amidst the rise of the Polish Solidarity movement and growing unrest in the Warsaw Pact countries.

Russian President Vladimir Putin did try to revive Intervision for the 21st century, with a new contest planned to take place in Sochi in 2014, involving former Soviet Union states and the Shanghai Cooperation Council members. This was in response to Russian anger over the “moral decay” of Eurovision, after bearded drag queen Conchita Wurst won for Austria that year.

But those plans never came to fruition, so Marion Rung and Finland remain the last winners of the Intervision Song Contest, the Cold War rival to Eurovision.

The post Eurovision versus Intervision: the Cold War song contest first appeared on Magazin Haber Ajansı.

The subject of the trip is “not just Ukraine, but the security of Europe more broadly”, said a spokesman for Johnson, who has been one of the most active European leaders in the Western response to the Moscow invasion, launched on 24 February.

“We support democratic capabilities to decide on things like NATO membership,” the spokesman continued. “We understand the positions of Sweden and Finland and that is why the prime minister is going to discuss these broader security issues.”

Both countries are considering joining the security alliance in order to benefit from its collective defence protection: NATO considers an attack on one member as an attack on all members. 

In Finland, where 76% of the population now favours NATO membership, according to a Monday poll by public broadcaster Yle, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö is due to make public his “personal” position on the issue on Thursday. 

Prime Minister Sanna Marin’s Social Democratic Party is expected to make its position public by Saturday at the latest.

In Sweden — which is more hesitant than Finland — the ruling Social Democratic Party, whose green light would ensure a clear majority in parliament for membership, has said it will make its decision known as early as this Sunday, some ten days earlier than originally planned.

The Kremlin has warned of “military and political repercussions” if the Swedes and Finns decide to join NATO.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who is deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said last month it would force Moscow to strengthen its military presence in the Baltic region.

Moscow has reportedly already repositioned some of its arsenal, including nuclear missiles, along its border with Finland and in the enclave of Kaliningrad — sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania — in response to the increased Finnish and Swedish interest in joining NATO.

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Russia’s war in Ukraine has sparked an urgent rethink in both countries. 

Coming out in favour of joining would be a historic development for either nation: Sweden has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, while Finland adopted neutrality after being defeated by the Soviet Union in World War II.

Along with Ukrainian resistance and Western sanctions, if either decided to join it would be one of the most significant ways in which the invasion appears to have backfired on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who cited NATO expansion as one of the reasons for attacking Ukraine. 

“There is no going back to the status quo before the invasion,” said Heli Hautala, a Finnish diplomat previously posted to Moscow and a research fellow at the Center for a New American Security in Washington.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, the Western leader who appeared to have the best rapport with Putin before the Ukraine war, is expected to announce his stance on NATO membership on Thursday. The governing Social Democratic parties in both countries are set to present their positions this weekend.

If their answer is “yes,” there would be robust majorities in both parliaments for NATO membership, paving the way for formal application procedures to begin right away.

The Finnish Social Democrats led by Prime Minister Sanna Marin are likely to join other parties in Finland in endorsing a NATO application. The situation in Sweden isn’t as clear.

The Swedish Social Democrats have always been staunchly committed to nonalignment, but party leader and Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson has said there’s a clear “before and after” 24 February. 

The party’s women’s faction, led by climate and environment minister Annika Strandhall, has come out against NATO membership.

“We believe that our interests are best served by being militarily nonaligned,” Strandhall told Swedish broadcaster TV4. “Traditionally, Sweden has been a strong voice for peace and disarmament.”

Neither Finland nor Sweden is planning a referendum, fearing it could become a prime target of Russian interference.

Sweden and Finland have sought — and received — assurances of support from the US and other NATO members in the application period should they seek membership.

Both countries feel they would be vulnerable in the interim before they’re covered by the alliance’s one-for-all, all-for-one security guarantees.

The Kremlin has warned of “military and political repercussions” if the Swedes and Finns decide to join NATO.

Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president who is deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, said last month it would force Moscow to strengthen its military presence in the Baltic region.

However, analysts say military action against the Nordic countries appears unlikely, given how bogged down Russian forces are in Ukraine.

Many of the Russian troops stationed near the 1,300-kilometer (830-mile) border with Finland were sent to Ukraine and have suffered “significant losses” there, Hautala said.

She said potential Russian countermeasures could include moving weapons systems closer to Finland, disinformation campaigns, cyberattacks, economic countermoves and steering migration toward the Russian-Finnish border, similar to what happened on Poland’s frontier with Belarus last year.

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Social media users have falsely suggested that both European Union member states are preparing to enter the war or engage in military conflict.

Investigations by Euronews and other independent fact-checkers have revealed that the claims are false and alleged video evidence has been taken out of context.

In times of conflict and crisis, when people are hungry for details about the war, misinformation can be equally as viral as verified facts.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have used social media to spread their propaganda, while pro-Kremlin users have also spread false claims.

Poland is NOT preparing to invade Ukrainian territory

A recent viral video has falsely claimed that Poland is preparing to send troops into Western Ukraine to confront Russia.

The footage — which includes the logo and branding of BBC News — alleges that Poland’s military general Yaroslav Mika had signed an order to put army sections on “full alert”.

The video was shared online by users in a number of languages, including Czech, French, Italian, Polish, Russian, and Turkish.

But online searches show no record of the BBC ever producing a report on the story, and senior disinformation journalists at the company state that the video is “fake”.

The branding of the BBC was also previously used to spread false claims about military strikes on a Kramamtorsk railway station that killed dozens of people.

The 1-minute video falsely claims Poland is moving soldiers towards Lviv in western Ukraine.Euronews via Twitter

Poland has led calls for the EU to toughen sanctions on Russia and for the NATO alliance to arm Ukraine during the war.

While Poland has provided its neighbour with military aid, it has not expressed any such plans to send troops into Ukrainian territory.

The General Command of the Polish Armed Forces dismissed the allegations and stated that any alleged order to move troops was “counterfeit”.

“This is a false order of the Polish General Staff, the whole document is fake,” its official Twitter account said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that hostile rhetoric was coming out of Poland and suggested that Warsaw could be “a source of threat”.

Polish government officials say Moscow and pro-Kremlin social media users are now launching information attacks against the country.

“The fake order of the Polish general, created for propaganda purposes, was used for disinformation activities against Poland,” said Stanisław Żaryn, a spokesman for Poland’s Special Services Ministry.

“The order was used to legitimise insinuations about Poland’s plans to attack western Ukraine,” he said on Twitter.

“[These] are all elements indicating that Russia is conducting a coordinated information operation against Poland.”

Warsaw says it has recently stepped up efforts to combat the spread of “disinformation” being spread by Russia.

Finland has NOT sent army tanks to the eastern Russian border

Another viral video has prompted false claims that Finland is preparing to escalate tensions near its 1,340-kilometre border with Russia.

The footage shows a freight train carrying dozens of tanks and military equipment across a railway bridge through a city.

Social media users have alleged that the tanks are being transported toward eastern Finland and the Russian border.

The video was widely shared on Facebook, Twitter, and Telegram and has gained hundreds of thousands of total views.

But Finland’s Defence Forces have stated that the claims are “not true” and that the equipment is moving away from Russia’s border.

The video shows a train travelling from east to west through the city of Tampere in Finland.Euronews via Twitter/Google

In a statement, the authority said that the tanks were heading towards an annual two-week military exercise in western Finland.

“The Armoured Brigade will lead the Army mechanised exercise Arrow 22 at Pohjankangas Niinisalo and in Säkylä,” the Defence Forces said.

“The exercise will involve around 150 armoured vehicles and up to 300 other military vehicles,” it added. “Tracked vehicles will be transported by train and by equipment transporters to the exercise area.”

Matching the video with images on Google, Euronews found that the video was taken in the city of Tampere. The footage shows that the train is moving westwards, towards the villages of Niinisalo and Säkylä.

Visting armies from the UK, Latvia, the USA and Estonia are also expected to participate in the planned military exercises, alongside more than 3,000 Finnish soldiers.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led both Finland and Sweden to send assault rifles and anti-tank weapons to Kyiv, breaking their policy of not providing arms to countries at war.

The two EU countries have also been mulling NATO membership, despite warnings from Moscow.

Russia has threatened to reinforce its presence in the Baltic Sea if either Finland or Sweden were to join the alliance.

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“It’s their decision,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. “But if they decide to apply, Finland and Sweden will be warmly welcomed, and I expect that process to go quickly.”

Stoltenberg’s remarks come as public support in Finland and Sweden for NATO membership has reached record highs, with speculation mounting that the pair may apply in May.

Polls have found that a majority of Swedes and Finns are currently in favour of joining the military alliance, with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine driving public support.

Both countries have a long history of non-alignment and neutrality towards Russia, although they have warred with the country in centuries past. 

Stoltenberg vouches protection from intimidation

The secretary-general did not give a precise time frame for membership if the Scandinavian countries did apply.

But Stoltenberg said NATO would offer some form of protection should Russia try to intimidate them in the “interim period”.

Russia has previously warned of nuclear deployment if Sweden and Finland joined the US-led military organisation, saying it would be forced to bolster its defences in the region. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin has long demanded that NATO stop expanding and that it should pull its troops back from Russia’s borders. 

In 2017, 21% of Finns were in favour of NATO membership. However, in March 2022, a survey found this had risen to about 62%.

Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia, has fought several wars against their eastern neighbour, fighting the Soviet Union from 1939-40 and 1941-44. 

Finland and Sweden have advanced militaries and defensive capacities that would bring substantial capability and expertise to NATO.

Both are widely considered to be leading security providers in Europe.

Founded in 1949, NATO is a collective security guarantee involving the US, Canada and a number of European nations, which ensures that all members must come to the aid of an ally if it is attacked.

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