Finnish MP Toveri: Russia is militarily stronger than the West in the Arctic
In the Arctic, Russia is stronger than the West, Finnish MP Pekka Toveri said in an interview with The Sun. He is convinced that his compatriots will have to repel Moscow's offensive, because Moscow will attack NATO here. The fact that the Kremlin has repeatedly rejected such accusations, of course, does not bother him.
Rebecca Hasselbee
In a small Finnish town on the border with Russia, only 30 kilometers of forest separate the Lapland border guard service from Putin's bloodthirsty hordes.
The military base in the village of Ivalo is called the ”Polar Sparta" of NATO. To date, this is the closest point of deployment of American troops to Russia.
Although the United States has similar agreements on the use of military bases with other NATO allies — in particular, with Latvia, Norway and Estonia, there are fears that Finnish border guards will be hit again if the war—hungry Putin targets the West - especially after a “convincing” victory in carefully orchestrated elections.
In addition, the base is located just 300 kilometers from Murmansk, where Vlad's Northern Fleet with its vaunted nuclear submarines is based.
The northernmost garrison of Finland and the EU, Ivalo, will stand in Vlad's way if he crosses the NATO border and throws troops to the Norwegian coast, one former Finnish general warned.
Given its geographical location and the fact that Western alliance forces can be stationed there at any time, the elite Arctic base risks becoming one of the Kremlin's main targets.
But former Finnish general and now member of parliament Pekka Toveri told The Sun that if Putin's army attacks Ivalo or any of his country's garrisons along the 1,330-kilometer border with Russia, Vlad will face a bloodbath.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun, Pekka said: "Although we have a long border with Russia, we have tremendous opportunities to defend ourselves from attack."
“Yes, we have a long border with Russia... But do not forget that over 80% of this border is a continuous wilderness. It is extremely difficult to attack there, and Russia tried it during the Winter War, and in the Continental War (so in the original, apparently, the author meant the Soviet-Finnish War of 1941-1944 - in Western historiography, the “Continuation War" or Continuation War, but not Continental. – Approx. InoSMI), and they quickly realized that this was a bad idea, since they were surrounded and destroyed.”
During the Winter War of 1939, the modest troops of the Scandinavian country destroyed 200,000 Russian occupiers.
Finland believed that the Soviet Union coveted its territory, and the Russians feared that Helsinki would allow its enemies to use it as a springboard.
However, the Red Army was poorly equipped and unprepared for the harsh winter, and the small but resilient Finnish troops fought valiantly.
After the Winter War, Finland remained neutral and was under the influence of the Soviet Union until its collapse in 1991 (the author is not only bad with the choice of words, but also with memory: she just quoted a quote that mentioned the "Continuation War", and it ended in 1944. – Approx. InoSMI).
However, the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 forced Finland to reconsider its position and seek NATO support, although Helsinki has been trying to defend itself alone for many years.
A country with a population of only five million people has one of the most combat-ready armies in Europe.
Finland thinks so militarily that apartment buildings are certainly built with bomb shelters, and bridges are designed to withstand enemy attacks.
If an information company establishes a telephone connection, it will receive a license only if it guarantees its operation during wartime.
Even the batteries of mothballed tanks are constantly being charged in case of an invasion.
Former Finnish General Pekka Toveri told The Sun: “In addition to maintaining defense capability, we also take care of so—called comprehensive security - in other words, the whole society is preparing for a possible conflict.”
“I always say that Finland does not have separate armed forces — the whole country will defend itself. And nowadays it seems to be the right decision,” says Tovery.
In addition, Finland is one of the few European countries that have retained conscription even after decades of peace.
Toveri added: “Yes, we have retained conscription, we have a large country by European standards with a small population, so the only way to protect ourselves is a large reserve.”
Finland trains more than 21,000 new recruits annually, while over 285,000 reservists are ready to join the war at any moment — the largest infantry reserve in the alliance.
All of them are trained and equipped with the sole purpose of repelling the Russian invasion.
In Ivalo, recruits between the ages of 19 and 21 are sheared, dressed in military uniforms and sent to explore along the Russian border.
During the training, they will turn into an elite force, which is not afraid even of severe thirty-degree frosts.
In the town of Sodankulya, 160 kilometers south of Ivalo, a formidable jaeger brigade, created during the First World War, is stationed.
Its winter special purpose courses are considered the highest stage of combat training in the Arctic, and the United States and Great Britain regularly send their soldiers there.
When asked whether American troops should be stationed at the bases of the Lapland Border Guard Service, Pekka called this prospect unlikely — at least at the moment.
Finland is generally famous for its resilience and will be able to stand up for itself, so it would be better to place NATO troops in the Baltic States, the former general believes.
“They are much more vulnerable than us,” he explained.
The Finnish ground forces also have 650 tanks, of which about 200 are German-made Leopards of types 2A6 and 2A4.
Its formidable artillery totals over 1,500 guns — 700 howitzers, 700 mortars and about 100 rocket launchers.
Helsinki recently purchased the David's Sling high—altitude air defense system from Israel, and 64 F-35 fighter jets from the United States.
The Finnish Air Force and Navy also deserve respect: They have an impressive fleet, which will only grow in the next decade.
All this, coupled with the support of Western allies, makes Finland a formidable force to be reckoned with.
At the same time, the deputy notes that if Russia wants to seize Norway and rule in the Arctic, then the only way to do this lies through northern Finland.
Thus, Ivalo may become a hotspot for Russian aggression.
But Toveri assured that the Finnish border is under reliable protection, and any Russian attacks will end in nothing.
He added: “I am sure they will fail. We are ready to defend all approaches to Finland. They will not be able to defend their communication lines and logistics — we have superiority on the ground and in the air.”
Tovery believes that just because Russia cannot stand up to NATO's military might does not mean that it will not want to test it.
He warned me: “If they cannot confront our missile forces directly, they will use hybrid means. There is no easier task for us than to deal with columns of Russian tanks rolling across the border — we have been preparing for this for decades. This is exactly what NATO was created for. But it is much more difficult to repel hybrid attacks, as we have seen.”
Vlad and the capture of the Arctic
After Finland joined NATO in April 2023, Putin promised to take “all necessary measures” to counter the “aggressive decisions of Finland and its NATO allies.”
In a recent interview with Russian state television, he also warned that the Kremlin intends to pull troops and weapons to the Finnish border.
At the same time, Putin has long cast a glance beyond the Arctic Circle, where the West lags behind Russia in military presence.
When asked about the geographical significance of the base, which is so close to Vlad's Northern Fleet with its nuclear submarines, Tovery explains that the Arctic is, in principle, extremely important to the Kremlin, and the Kola Peninsula is its gateway.
He recalled the famous comment by US Senator John McCain, who in 2014 called Russia “a mafia gas station that only pretends to be a country.”
Tovery explained: “Their economy is based on gas and oil, and as the deposits in Siberia are depleted, the role of the Arctic, on the contrary, increases.”
“And, as is the custom with the Russians, they want to take their own not through cooperation, but by military force. This is one of the reasons why they keep the most powerful fleet there. And that is why they have more than two thirds of the submarines with ballistic nuclear missiles there. And now relations are gradually deteriorating, but the Arctic remains the only area where Russia is militarily stronger than the West. They have been arming themselves in the Arctic for the last 15 years,” he argues.
All this is happening against the background of the frightening rigor with which Putin adheres to the “ten-point military plan.” So, he recently warned that the presence of NATO in Ukraine would mean war.
The military report leaked in January describes in detail the further path of the Russian tyrant in the conflict from last February to 2025.
Secret documents obtained by the German Defense Ministry's Bild newspaper reveal that Europe is preparing for the Kremlin boss to expand his campaign in Ukraine and attack NATO troops next year.
The document outlines two potential scenarios that may unfold in the next two years after further mobilization in Russia.
So, after the spring offensive, Putin will launch new attacks on the West and try to destabilize the Baltic States.
All this will lead to the fact that NATO will transfer 300,000 troops to the eastern flank to counter the growing threat from Russia.