"The Finns, they, uh... who are they again? Woke, communists, like always?"

It will take a while, you can't expect christ-- sorry Republicans to know the basic geography of a place that was one of the most discussed areas in terms of Cold War policy for decades.

Fox news sometime in a month will have some blonde or angry Irish background guy looking like a confused dog saying how the PM there went to a party.

Is Putin really that weak domestically to care about elections?

The ones where Moscow political class sons do their military service. Where the only danger they face is getting buggered by their own Sargent's.

NATO's

Finland was first created some time during the Cold War between Russia and the West.

Japan-Soviet relations had always been shaky at best, but also incredibly secretive. Even as early as 1925 Japan and the Soviet Union had secret deals with each other regarding fishing rights between the two countries, with the Soviet Union giving up much of it's fishing rights to Japan with seemingly no explanation as to why.

These secretive treaties and alliances continued right up until just before the fall of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev made trips to Japan months before the fall of the Soviet Union stating the entire time how the relations between them were improving, even when Soviet relations with the rest of the world were worsening.

In fact the entire past 100 years of Japanese-Russian relations bring up many unanswered questioned.

Why at the height of WW2, were the battles between these two countries minimal despite being on opposing sides?

Why did Japan sign a peace treaty with Russia in 1941, just months before their allies, Germany, went to war with Russia?

Why were relations between Japan and Russia always good throughout the Cold War, despite the major geopolitical differences between the countries, and close geographical positions that you think would cause tensions?

The answer is simple, they shared a common secret. A common asset that worked in both of their favours. And that asset was Finland.

It's unclear when Finland was first thought up, some say it was during the Cold War, and others say it was as far back as the 1920's, but the necessity of Finland is quite simple.

Japan can fish in the region of ocean between Sweden and Russia without worry for environmental repercussions, after all, nobody's going to expect fishing regulations to be broken in a place where everyone thinks there's a landmass will they? And in return Russia get a percentage of the fish to distribute amongst their populace.

It's a simple case of fishing the Finnish Sea, transporting it across Russia, (that was the real reason for the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway by the way), and then shipping it from the Eastern Russian coast to Japan under the disguise of 'Nokia' products.

This is why Nokia is the largest 'Finnish' company, and it is also why Japan is the largest importer of Nokia products, despite the fact that very few people own Nokia phones in the country.

There are clearly some unanswered questions to this conspiracy that I'll try and address below.

1- What about Finnish people? Are they all in on the conspiracy?

A. No. People from Finland genuinely believe they're from Finland. In reality they are from small towns on either the Eastern part of Sweden, the Western part of Russia, or the Northern part of Estonia.

2- What about all of Finland's other exports other than Nokia?

A. Finland's three biggest, and three most well known areas of industry are Oil, Tech, and Software. The oil is gathered in offshore platforms where the rest of us believe the landmass of Finland is, (again the Japanese get to avoid rigging regulations in this respect), the Tech companies have already been explained above with the Nokia post, and Software companies can easily redirect their IP Address through the Finnish sea. As for other Finnish exports, well, claiming Santa comes from your country isn't a viable way to get people to believe in it.

3- What about Helsinki? That is an enormous city on the world stage.

A. Helsinki is located in Eastern Sweden. It's not like the people flying there would notice.

4- What about everywhere else in Finland? There's a lot to it and it couldn't all be made up.

A. 99% of Finland is forest. A lot of it doesn't need to be accounted for when addressing Finnish geography.

5- Why do other countries go along with it?

A. At first it was a sign of goodwill between Western Countries and the Soviet Union. A bargaining chip that could be played. But Finland has since evolved to something much more. An idealistic placeholder for what countries should aspire to. No real country could so consistently place first in Education, Healthcare, Gender Equality, Literacy Rates, National Stability, The least corrupt government in the world, Freedom of the press. It's a concept for countries and people to aspire to. But that's where the problems about Finland's existence is disputed. no country in the world can possibly be that good.

6- Why the name Finland?

A. The country was originally made for fishing. What do fish have? Fins. Thus Finland.

7- What about the Finnish language?

A. Look up the similarities between Japanese and Finnish. It may surprise you how similar they are. Which is weird considering the vast distances between them.

8- I'm Finnish and your attack on my people and culture is insulting.

A. I'm not insulting Finnish people or culture. I don't even deny that there is Finnish culture. When you have a collective of a few million people identifying as Finnish then of course a culture will be built around it. I'm simply saying that that the landmass of Finland isn't actually there. It doesn't mean there can't be a culture or identity of being Finnish however.

9- This is an enormous conspiracy to keep secret, how could nobody else of realized it?

A. Other people have realized it. But imagine the ridiculousness of the statement 'I don't believe Finland exists'. Even if we did have undeniable proof of something put in front of us we would still hold the opinion that most of our friends, family, and acquaintances hold to not disrupt social convention. It's part of the human condition.

10- What about GPS and Satellite Images?

A. It's manipulated and forged. In the parts of Estonia, Sweden, and Russia that are allocated as 'Finnish zones' the GPS locations are changed to match that of Finland. Satellite images are forged. This is how that part of the world really looks.

I feel like he's doing this just to threaten the troops on the front line with somewhere colder

I've wanted to fight Russia since they annexed Crimea. I knew it wouldn't end there, and I was proven right. If they manage to obtain the natural resources of Ukraine then it will just keep escalating. The thing is, though, Russia has lost so many troops that they could easily be swept, right now. Now has never been a better time for either the EU or NATO to force Russia into demilitarization and reparations, as well as putting more economic pressure on the Chinese Dictatorship.

One thing I don't want, though, is a direct conflict with China. Those fuckers need to try fixing their own shit, first. Idk if that makes me strong against the weak and weak against the strong, but there is simply too much to lose for all sides in that sort of conflict, unlike the very weakened and destabilized Russia.

It's really disappointing, isn't it? Putin has been given every opportunity to stop the invasion or not even start it in the first place, and in ways that would help him save face. He's rejected all of that and insists on only violence. The only response to that is returning the violence. Defending Ukraine is the most unquestionably morally correct military action I've seen in my life.

It also brings up an interesting observation -- to have a peaceful society, you have to be willing to violently defend it. If another party insists you give into their demands or they'll get violent, you have to eventually oppose them. Otherwise, if you constantly submit to them in the name of peace, they'll eventually take away your peace. Just like a tolerant society must reject intolerant views, a peaceful society must be willing to defend themselves in war.

If it weren't for the existence of Russia's massive fleet of nuclear weapons (which probably don't actually work but it's a hell of a risk) i'm sure NATO would have already got involved.

The only reasonable way I can see this war ending is if the internal politics of Russia decide Putin is now too much of a problem and deal with him themselves. Then whoever takes charge backs out of Ukraine because it's not a winnable conflict.

I can't see how anyone external can bring about an end to the conflict without risking massive escalation.

They can make a big show of parking the T14s and Su-57s there knowing they won't have to be put to use and no one will find out how shit they are.

Russia will absolutely not invade Finland, even if it weren't part of NATO and the EU.

Wake up, Simo Hayha. Finland needs its protector once more.

I highly doubt those troops are for invading Finland. If there's any NATO country that should be worried it's probably Estonia. Especially if/when Trump gets elected president again.