Photo. Baptiste Valthier/Pexels
Russia no longer prepares aggression with tanks alone — it begins with history, reshaped into a political weapon. A new report by Finland’s Psychological Defence Agency shows how the past is being systematically instrumentalised to legitimise future pressure and destabilisation.
History has once again become a battlefield. The December 2025 report”History as a Battlefield: Russia’s Information War Against Finland 2025” demonstrates that the Russian Federation is deliberately exploiting distorted historical narratives as a tool of state policy. This is neither improvised nor reactive; it is a structured influence campaign designed to undermine the sovereignty of neighbouring states and normalise Russian power ambitions.
The operational pattern is familiar. Accusations of „Nazism,” „Russophobia,” and alleged threats to Russia are combined with legal warfare (lawfare), the vandalisation of memorial sites, inflammatory political rhetoric, and the activity of proxy „civil society” actors. In Finland’s case, particular emphasis is placed on regional dynamics in Karelia and Leningrad Oblast, where local courts and activist groups are mobilised to create the illusion of grassroots legitimacy for Kremlin-driven narratives.
Legal instruments occupy a central role in this strategy. Court rulings in St. Petersburg and indictments in Petrozavodsk are used to construct a false juridical framework that may later serve as a basis for reparations claims or, in the long term, even territorial demands. Law is not applied to resolve disputes, but to manufacture political pressure and retroactively justify future actions.
The report highlights the escalatory logic underpinning these operations. Narrative precedes law, law precedes physical action. Rhetoric, legal measures, and symbolic acts reinforce one another, gradually conditioning both domestic and international audiences to accept the premise that confrontation is historically justified. This same sequence was previously employed against Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Poland; Finland is now the latest target.
From a regional security perspective, the conclusions are clear. The Nordic, Baltic, and Polish states require a coordinated response that treats information space, historical memory, diplomacy, and defence as interconnected domains. Rapid, fact-based counter-communication at the international level must be matched with the protection of commemorative culture, diplomatic coordination, and long-term societal resilience against manipulation.
Russia starts with narratives before it moves to other instruments of coercion. Understanding how these narratives are constructed and operationalised is a prerequisite for preventing the next stages of pressure and escalation. The full report is available here: https://mpf.se/psychological-defence-agency/publications/archive/2025-12-11-history-as-a-battlefield—russias-information-war-against—-finland-2025
HISTORY AS A BATTLEFIELD [Download PDF]
RUSSIA’S INFORMATION WAR AGAINST FINLAND 2025
About the author of the report: Patrik Oksanen is a Strategic Advisor at the Centre for Societal Security at the Swedish Defence University