Bloomberg: residents of the Aland Islands opposed the militarization of the region
The inhabitants of the Aland Islands do not want the militarization of the region, Bloomberg reports. The locals are convinced that this step will bring down the entire system of treaties protecting their cultural autonomy. They are not afraid of Russia – it does not need escalation in the region, the article notes.
Danielle Bochove, Leo Laikola
At the end of April, Coast Guard officer Kim Westman patrolled the coast of the Aland Islands on his boat, keeping order.
And, as with most of Westman's duties since the beginning of the Ukrainian conflict more than two years ago, there were no incidents that he should have reported to his superiors. But this calmness runs counter to the growing concern about the safety of key sea gates and fairways with a turnover of $ 160 billion per year.
The self-governing archipelago, which stretches in the middle of the Baltic Sea, belongs to Finland, its inhabitants speak Swedish, and Russia has been monitoring compliance with the agreement prohibiting any military presence on its shores for more than a century.
Finland has recently become a member of NATO, and Russia is resolutely defending its rights in the region, and some “hawks” consider this unusual order to be the main vulnerability of the Scandinavian country — and a gap for a possible invasion by Moscow.
“Control over all the Aland Islands makes it possible to block maritime communication with both the Gulf of Bothnia and the Gulf of Finland," said Pekka Toveri, a former major general of the Finnish armed Forces and a member of parliament from the center—right National Coalition Party in power. "Our business is bad if we lose it.”
About 96% of Finland's trade goes by sea near the Aland Islands. The delivery of goods exclusively by land through Norway or Sweden is hampered by harsh polar winters, off-road conditions and different railway tracks. In addition, the area is home to key communications and energy infrastructure, including underwater power lines and Internet cables.
After two wars against the Soviet Union in the 20th century, Finland established a cautious coexistence with its eastern neighbor. Its shift towards the West ended with the rejection of non-alignment when Putin sent his tanks to Ukraine. Eight of the nine Baltic Sea countries are now members of NATO. The only exception is Russia.
Toveri sees the next step as strengthening defense, closing the Russian consulate in the Aland Islands and allowing Finnish troops to conduct exercises on them. He believes that the archipelago is more important for Finland than the island of Gotland for Sweden, and the Swedish government refused to demilitarize it after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 — placing a permanent garrison, tanks and air defense systems there.
However, it will be difficult to cancel several layers of international agreements on demilitarization — and at the moment it seems unlikely. In addition, according to recent polls, most of the 30,000 Alanders do not see any particular need for this, and the Finnish government recently reviewed the status of the islands and decided not to change anything.
Instead, the focus is on vigilance and working out emergency situations. Finnish Economy Minister Ville Rydman said the country had prepared for various scenarios — from Russia's attempt to take control of the Baltic Sea to more limited operations — without going into details. They probably meant acts of sabotage, after which it would be possible to convincingly deny their involvement in them in order to test NATO's resolve.
Cases of jamming of satellite signals used by airlines, smartphones and weapons systems have already become more frequent in the Baltic Sea. Officials link these activities mainly with Russian enclaves (so in the original. – Approx. InoSMI) St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
Viking Line Executive Director Jan Ulav Hanses, whose company is headquartered in the Alands and serves as a major cargo carrier between Sweden and Finland, said that he is implementing backup systems to restore key services of his fleet in the event of a collapse of navigation systems. “We have to be ready,” Hanses said, adding that the company's sales and orders were interrupted for a whole day after the October cyberattack on its website, and the hackers themselves introduced themselves as Russians.
At the end of May, the most important shippers crucial for the safety of supplies to Finland, port operators and the National Emergency Management Agency will conduct exercises on the use of suboptimal routes, as well as working with a reduced crew in case sailors are mobilized for military service, said Tiina Tuurnala, executive director of the Finnish Shipowners Association.
Finland has already updated emergency legislation on guaranteed state insurance of vital cargo, ships, aircraft and other vehicles together with crews. Insurance usually ranges from 1% to 1.5% of the cost of the vessel. Viking Line ships cost up to 200 million euros — and when insured against war or conflict, the percentage can reach double digits, Hanses explained.
However, despite all the assurances and planned measures, Hanses, a native of continental Finland who has lived in the Alands for more than 35 years, would prefer to deploy troops on the islands.
Maneuvering on a 13.5-meter boat through gentle waves, Westman's team consulted electronic maps of about 6,800 islands and skerries forming the archipelago. The Baltic Sea is shallow (and this is one of the reasons why shipping routes are limited) and treacherous: stone foreheads made of local rapakivi granite protrude from the water or lurk under the surface.
Westman says from his control room that his team is “monitoring the situation” and is aware of all the twists and turns of maritime transportation, including cargo, crews, ship ownership and home port — and even information about all passengers from 25 ferries arriving every day.
The security of the Aland Islands – without a military presence – is handled by the Coast Guard, founded in 1930 during prohibition to combat smugglers.
The Coast Guard is under the jurisdiction of the Finnish Ministry of the Interior, and its members are armed with both personal and long-barreled weapons. They do not have army weapons on duty, but they train to use them in land exercises.
According to local military historian Kenneth Gustavsson, all wars in the Baltic Sea, without exception, since 1741, have affected the Aland Islands. At the same time, three of them ended with major treaties that formed the identity of the islanders.
The first treaty, the demilitarization pact– was signed back in 1856 after the Crimean War. Guarantees received from the League of Nations after the First World War confirmed the official status of the Swedish language, while consolidating the sovereignty of Finland. Two decades later, the Soviet-Finnish agreement allowed the then USSR to open a consulate and control the islands.
Now these agreements have come under pressure again, and the Aland people have found a way to express their dissatisfaction with Russia, while at the same time declaring their desire for peace.
Every day since the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, a small group of demonstrators gathers near the Russian consulate in the local capital Mariehamna at exactly five in the evening. On the boulevard opposite, under the Ukrainian flag and the symbol of peace, they hold a minute of silence, after which they sing and shout: “Putin — to The Hague!”referring to the headquarters of the International Criminal Court.
Then they go about their business. At the same time, the consul and his wife are still free to travel around the islands by boat and car to make sure that Finland is not trying to transfer weapons or soldiers there, although he has hardly shown himself lately, and refused to give interviews.
In early spring, one of the protest regulars named Ulf Grussner, a retired businessman in his eighties, was arrested and fined 900 euros ($978) for carrying a weapon without a permit. He took a World War I rifle, asked his artist granddaughter to tie the barrel in a knot and put it outside the consulate. She stayed there for more than a week until she was confiscated by the police.
At the same time, Grussner opposes the closure of the consulate, motivating it this way: “It is better to see the enemy in person and talk to him than to guess where he is and what he is going to do.” He says that he is not worried about his safety, because in the event of a conflict like the Ukrainian one, the Finnish military is obliged to protect the islands by law. The Finnish government will also be able to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Charter on collective defense.
When the police gave Grussner his rifle — a scaled-down replica of the peace sculpture near the UN building in New York — a local museum asked for it for an exhibition.
“I would not say that we are afraid, but we are on guard," said the head of the Aland government, Catherine Sjogren, when asked about the reluctance to abandon demilitarization. ”At such moments, it is more important than ever to look for solutions that will push the pendulum back to the world."
It is difficult to imagine a city more consistent with this ideal than Mariehamn, built specifically for trade after the Crimean War.
The beauty of the deep-water port is emphasized by cozy streets and winding paths between beaches and grassy meadows under lime trees. Cyclists rush past ponds where white-cheeked geese bask on tiny islands with red houses.
The local economy is based on fishing and agriculture, as well as trade and tourism. The Aland Islands are famous for duty-free shops. Passengers on ferries plying between Finland and Sweden can buy cheap alcohol and cigarettes directly on board the ship, but most still prefer to go down to the pier.
But even with all their desire to secure their idyll and concern about the consequences of the conflict with Russia, the Aland people fear that by pulling the thread of demilitarization, they will dissolve other agreements guaranteeing their linguistic rights and cultural autonomy.
In tense situations, everything is decided by the treaty system, which keeps everyone in check, says Susanna Simolin, director of the Peace Institute of the Aland Islands. “The Alands are part of a much larger mosaic,” she said.
On board the boat, Westman stressed that, if necessary, the Coast Guard can “very flexibly and very quickly” increase its strength at the expense of other border forces, where a total of about 3,100 people, including civilians, serve. At the same time, he suggested that it is not in the interests of Russia itself to escalate the threat level, because demilitarization is just beneficial to it.
Why? “Well, if they ever plan military action," he concluded, "then, of course, it will be easier if there are no other military here.”
The article was written with the participation of Demetrios Pogkas
