If Russia attacked Finland I’d go to Finland to fight, as many Norwegians did before WW2, like Max Manus who was a close friend of my great grandfather.
My cousins are half finnish half Norwegian, my step-aunt is Finnish. We share a long border with Finland.
When we were under the Swedes, we used our constitution for our independence. The Swedes absolutely did not have to honor that, there was not a single country in the world who would have stood up for us. But, we got our independence peacefully. The last war we had with Sweden was called: “Tyttebærkrigen” or “Theatre War” because it wasn’t a war at all. The last **real** war the Nordic countries had against eachother was because of the UK’s unprovoked attack on Denmark out of fear that Denmark-Norway would join Napoleon after we had announced ourselves (like the Swedes) neutral. Sweden joined in because they had just lost Finland to Russia, and was a superpower at the time. Wanting to regain territory they had lost, reluctantly. But, they treated us right, let us keep our constitution.
To sum it up, when we got our independence from the Swedes, **the first thing we did was ask them to give us a king from their royal line.** That should about sum it up.
We where more fearful before the war started. Russia has moved a lot of its troops from Murmansk and the Norwegian border to Ukraine. Also there bad performances in Ukraine have shown that a nato would win a defensive war with Russia. We are more fearful of higher electricity prices and inflation.
Fearful about Russia? Not really, at least I don’t fear much for Norway’s safety at the moment. We are a full NATO member, and historically we have a decent relationship with Russia in the north.
Russia bullies anyone they can, but their usual justification for invasions are “defending the oppressed Russian population”. It’s often bullshit, of course, but that’s what they say. And there isn’t really a Russian population here they can claim is being oppressed. Percentage-wise, the Norwegian closest city to Russia has quite a few Russians, but it’s nothing like say the Baltics or Ukraine.
Very little has changed in everyday life apart from the actual border being more restricted and having fewer or no Russian ships in our ports. Russia threathened to pull out of a maritime border treaty with Norway over a disagreement on supplies to a mainly Russian settlement on the Norwegian islands of Svalbard, but I think it was mostly emply threats. Us being in NATO does help a whole lot.
I am fearful for Ukraine, though, and believe that we need to help Ukraine even more to stop Russia slowly moving forward in all of Donbas by turning all of it into ruins and wiping out a generation of Ukrainian men. If it raises gas, electricity and food prices for me, I’m fine with that. I live very comfortably, though, it’s probably harder for those struggling to make ends meet to support sanctions affecting themselves too. But I would happily sacrifice quite a bit of my monthly income for Ukraine right now.
I am not particularly fearful for the safety of Sweden and Finland. Finland are certainly more exposed than Sweden, but Russia knows that moving past the occasional provocation won’t help them in any way. What is the end game? They know they are universally hated in both countries now, there is no divide in the Finnish society for Russia to take advantage of. Finland really fell outside the Russian sphere of influence a long time ago and Sweden never was there. Either way, when I deal with NATO documents at work, they are usually marked with stuff like “NATO Restricted/Confidential/Secret – releasable to SWE and FIN”. They have been very, very close to NATO for years. Closer than most people realize.
I truly believe Russia already considered the two as lost, and therefore didn’t truly care about pushing them even closer to NATO. But I feel bad that they were and probably again will be kept in limbo by an Erdogan desperate to divert attention from his systematic dismantling of the Turkish economy. Turkey holding up their applications has to be extremely uncomfortable for Finland and Sweden, and I really hope they can solve this quickly. But I think the current risk is still minimal.
But yes, I would give up very much to save either of them if for some reason they needed me to. The Finns held their own against Russia twice, they are our great friends and neighbors. The Swedes are our very closest brothers and sisters. Finland isn’t Scandinavian (Norway, Sweden, Denmark), by the way, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t closely linked. We speak unrelated languages apart from the Swedish-speaking Finns, but we are still certainly very close and have a strong sense of solidarity with each other. All Nordic nations (Scandinavia + Finland and Iceland and dependencies) cooperate at basically every opportunity and have each other’s backs. I’d give up more or less anything.
I fear the Russians as much as I fear rain, in other words not at all. I live right beside the Russian border, and well. there is not much to fear. For Norway as a whole, well there was a bit more concern before the current events kicked off, but after the abysmal performance in the war, the fear of a Russia/ NATO conflict has diminished greatly.
Gas prices are high but manageable, power is dirt cheap where I live so no complaints about it. I like our neighboring countries, got nothing but good to say about Sweden and Finland. If war came to Finland or Sweden I would volunteer at once, particularly for Finland as I got family there.
All i can hear in my head is Gimli- let them come
We dgaf about russia lol
I for one would like to see them try. Sure, Ukraine is huge, and Norway is small. On the other hand we are an eternity of bridges, tunnels and ferries. They would be hard pressed to win any considerable amount of land before our nato Allie’s show up.
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If Russia attacked Finland I’d go to Finland to fight, as many Norwegians did before WW2, like Max Manus who was a close friend of my great grandfather.
My cousins are half finnish half Norwegian, my step-aunt is Finnish. We share a long border with Finland.
When we were under the Swedes, we used our constitution for our independence. The Swedes absolutely did not have to honor that, there was not a single country in the world who would have stood up for us. But, we got our independence peacefully. The last war we had with Sweden was called: “Tyttebærkrigen” or “Theatre War” because it wasn’t a war at all. The last **real** war the Nordic countries had against eachother was because of the UK’s unprovoked attack on Denmark out of fear that Denmark-Norway would join Napoleon after we had announced ourselves (like the Swedes) neutral. Sweden joined in because they had just lost Finland to Russia, and was a superpower at the time. Wanting to regain territory they had lost, reluctantly. But, they treated us right, let us keep our constitution.
To sum it up, when we got our independence from the Swedes, **the first thing we did was ask them to give us a king from their royal line.** That should about sum it up.
We where more fearful before the war started. Russia has moved a lot of its troops from Murmansk and the Norwegian border to Ukraine. Also there bad performances in Ukraine have shown that a nato would win a defensive war with Russia. We are more fearful of higher electricity prices and inflation.
Fearful about Russia? Not really, at least I don’t fear much for Norway’s safety at the moment. We are a full NATO member, and historically we have a decent relationship with Russia in the north.
Russia bullies anyone they can, but their usual justification for invasions are “defending the oppressed Russian population”. It’s often bullshit, of course, but that’s what they say. And there isn’t really a Russian population here they can claim is being oppressed. Percentage-wise, the Norwegian closest city to Russia has quite a few Russians, but it’s nothing like say the Baltics or Ukraine.
Very little has changed in everyday life apart from the actual border being more restricted and having fewer or no Russian ships in our ports. Russia threathened to pull out of a maritime border treaty with Norway over a disagreement on supplies to a mainly Russian settlement on the Norwegian islands of Svalbard, but I think it was mostly emply threats. Us being in NATO does help a whole lot.
I am fearful for Ukraine, though, and believe that we need to help Ukraine even more to stop Russia slowly moving forward in all of Donbas by turning all of it into ruins and wiping out a generation of Ukrainian men. If it raises gas, electricity and food prices for me, I’m fine with that. I live very comfortably, though, it’s probably harder for those struggling to make ends meet to support sanctions affecting themselves too. But I would happily sacrifice quite a bit of my monthly income for Ukraine right now.
I am not particularly fearful for the safety of Sweden and Finland. Finland are certainly more exposed than Sweden, but Russia knows that moving past the occasional provocation won’t help them in any way. What is the end game? They know they are universally hated in both countries now, there is no divide in the Finnish society for Russia to take advantage of. Finland really fell outside the Russian sphere of influence a long time ago and Sweden never was there. Either way, when I deal with NATO documents at work, they are usually marked with stuff like “NATO Restricted/Confidential/Secret – releasable to SWE and FIN”. They have been very, very close to NATO for years. Closer than most people realize.
I truly believe Russia already considered the two as lost, and therefore didn’t truly care about pushing them even closer to NATO. But I feel bad that they were and probably again will be kept in limbo by an Erdogan desperate to divert attention from his systematic dismantling of the Turkish economy. Turkey holding up their applications has to be extremely uncomfortable for Finland and Sweden, and I really hope they can solve this quickly. But I think the current risk is still minimal.
But yes, I would give up very much to save either of them if for some reason they needed me to. The Finns held their own against Russia twice, they are our great friends and neighbors. The Swedes are our very closest brothers and sisters. Finland isn’t Scandinavian (Norway, Sweden, Denmark), by the way, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t closely linked. We speak unrelated languages apart from the Swedish-speaking Finns, but we are still certainly very close and have a strong sense of solidarity with each other. All Nordic nations (Scandinavia + Finland and Iceland and dependencies) cooperate at basically every opportunity and have each other’s backs. I’d give up more or less anything.
I fear the Russians as much as I fear rain, in other words not at all. I live right beside the Russian border, and well. there is not much to fear. For Norway as a whole, well there was a bit more concern before the current events kicked off, but after the abysmal performance in the war, the fear of a Russia/ NATO conflict has diminished greatly.
Gas prices are high but manageable, power is dirt cheap where I live so no complaints about it. I like our neighboring countries, got nothing but good to say about Sweden and Finland. If war came to Finland or Sweden I would volunteer at once, particularly for Finland as I got family there.
All i can hear in my head is Gimli- let them come
We dgaf about russia lol
I for one would like to see them try. Sure, Ukraine is huge, and Norway is small. On the other hand we are an eternity of bridges, tunnels and ferries. They would be hard pressed to win any considerable amount of land before our nato Allie’s show up.