Finland Instructs Nearly a Million Military Reservists

Finland has sent letters to nearly a million reservists to collect their contact details and remind them of their duties in case of combat, a defence ministry spokesman said.

The letter tells reservists which regiment or unit to join in the event of war, he told the BBC.

He insisted that the correspondence was not related to Russia's annexation of Crimea or recent fighting in Ukraine.

However, neutral Finland has increased co-operation with Nato this year.

In April the Finnish navy dropped depth charges in waters near Helsinki as a warning to a suspected submarine, which some media reports said was Russian.

Finland Instructs Nearly a Million Military Reservists

Interesting news - it may well be nothing but it does seem to be an unusual move by Finland who, as the article states, have increased co-operation with NATO recently and have had some issues with Russian submarines...

Finland was always sucked into wars. That's why my grandfather left there, Finland was a ping pong ball, getting tossed back and forth.

a reply to: stumason

Well so much for their carefree weekend. I always thought Finland remained a close ally of Russia's too, although they may have been feeling a trifle isolated from Europe as a result. With all the back and forth going on between NATO and Russia, how can anyone feel safe? They do have memories of a horrible time in the 1940s to add to their anxiety. I'm thinking that this is a tactic to show their population that they're being cautious perhaps?

a reply to: aboutface

Finland was only ever "loosely" allied to Russia owing to the invasion and subsequent "Finlandisation" of them by the Soviet Union. If you had that big bugger on your doorstep, you'd at least pay them lip service when they told you what to do and they didn't have the luxury of joining NATO.

But recently, Russia has been playing the bully again - flights by bombers, incursions by submarines and even threats to "not join NATO, or else" being made. You can hardly blame them for taking measures to defend themselves and they are very much a European country (EU and Eurozone member) nowadays and want little do with Russia.

Apparently the people of Findland don't read the Russian State owned news. Or they would realize Vlad would only come to liberate them. ( yep sarcasm)

a reply to: stumason

Maybe they're going to invade Russia??

Winter War II?

a reply to: seagull

what was it last time something like ten dead russians for every dead fin and 100 dead russians for every mile they tried to take? guess we get to see if they have another simo in the wings.......


www.winterwar.com...

a reply to: RalagaNarHallas

Something like...

Finland gave 'em all they wanted. There just weren't enough Fins with guns and bullets.

There are two countries in Europe that you have to mad to mess with on their home ground...

Finland, and Switzerland.

a reply to: seagull

The local Geography certainly helps!

But with the Swiss, just bottle them up in their mountain fortresses - they'll run out of Muesli before long! No need to even invade, just camp outside and block all the entrances

Is there a hidden (to me) history of Finland and the Swiss that I'm missing? I'm being honest, I didn't know they were in the "don't mess with us" crowd. I imagine this is why the Swiss were able to stay neutral in past fights?

I digress, I'm off to do some reading now. This has me intrigued 😊 sorry for interrupting this discussion.

a reply to: stumason

a reply to: DuckforcoveR

The Finnish did quite well out of the War against the USSR in the 40's - they held up the entire Red Army and prevented them over running the country, something no one else managed to do. But as I said, the geography helped.

The Swiss on the other hand have been neutral for centuries, but given their geography and also the fact they technically have the worlds largest Army would mean it would be a tall order to invade and hold.

Besides, my view is that the hardest place to invade is actually Britain. It hasn't been successfully invaded by a foreign power for 949 years Find me another place on earth who can claim that record!

a reply to: stumason

Probably just tactical directives from NATO.

Thank you for that. 👍 the Swiss I knew were neutral, but I honestly never questioned why. The "biggest army" is because of the fact everybody has a gun and is trained from a young age, right? And Finland is new to me, I tend to point a scope with my history lessons and I sometimes forget the bigger picture instead of focusing in the details. Apologies.

But thank you. I'm really interested in learning more about their strategic advantage when it comes to their geography.

And I agree completely. The UK is on a pretty impenetrable land mass. It would take a nuke to quell the masses and land ashore. Luckily, the nuke should keep anybody from wanting to (probably a bad way to put that)


a reply to: stumason

a reply to: DuckforcoveR

Indeed - in Switzerland every male from the age of 18 has to undergo military training, is issued with a military grade assault rifle (to be kept at home - no ammo though) and must report regularly for a period of time for further training. In a time of War, Switzerland has at it's disposal several million armed and trained men. They also took the trouble of building significant fortifications in the mountains for them to retreat to and hold out in the case of an invasion.

Finland's geography is different - aside from being cold, it is also very marshy. It doesn't lend itself well to mobilising and keeping supplied a large army. Add onto that local knowledge of the landscape and survival and a much smaller force can hold up a huge army relatively easily, as they did in the 40's.

As for the UK - there is a reason we are the worlds largest Aircraft carrier! Those 22 miles of Channel are enough to prevent any land invasion and aside from simply wiping us from the map, a la nuclear barrage, any invasion attempt would be at the very least extremely costly. The same, I suppose, could be said of Japan while we're at it.

Well said. I could say you gave the case closed / good enough and I don't have to read anymore, but i would be doing a disservice to humanity. I shall read. But you've certainly caught my curiosity for now thank you!

a reply to: stumason

This is just part of the anti-Russia fear mongering going on in here.. we've had the worst (neoliberal) government in history, now they lost the majority in the Parliament but they're still in the government. Bilderberg, NWO treasonists each and every one of them.

Basically all of the MSM is controlled by same interests and the fearmongering is just off the scale.. a VAST majority (at least 80%) of the people want to stay out of the NATO and keep good relations with Russia, so they're playing it really dirty to try to lure us in.

Just a bunch of NWO lunatic BS that gets ZERO support from the people here.

Oh yeah, the "submarine" story was such a farce and the "depth charges" dropped were just warning shots, not real bombs. It's a damn joke. Might as well been a whale or an underwater unicorn.

originally posted by: aboutface
a reply to: stumason

Well so much for their carefree weekend. I always thought Finland remained a close ally of Russia's too, although they may have been feeling a trifle isolated from Europe as a result. With all the back and forth going on between NATO and Russia, how can anyone feel safe? They do have memories of a horrible time in the 1940s to add to their anxiety. I'm thinking that this is a tactic to show their population that they're being cautious perhaps?

Putin wanting Finland back as part of Russia probably dampened that relationship.

a reply to: Tryptych

I don't suppose you have any supporting information for any of your claims do you, or are we supposed to take your word for it?

Here are some sources for the call up/notification:

This one.

.. .and this one.

and the submarine incident...

Here.

There are several more articles concerning the Russian sub being chased off.

originally posted by: rickymouse
Finland was always sucked into wars. That's why my grandfather left there, Finland was a ping pong ball, getting tossed back and forth.

Sounds like the American people.

Weird how patterns are seen in nature all over the place. .