Santa and Father Frost, not tanks and troops, have met up at the busiest border crossing between Russia and Finland.
But despite the jovial ho-ho-hos in the annual show of seasonal goodwill and neighborly friendship, there lies an increasing disquiet in the Nordic nation.
Finland shares a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia and is preparing to celebrate a centenary of independence from its huge eastern neighbor. Yet Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 remains an uneasy reminder that current borders can be changed by force.
Hannu Himanen, a senior security adviser at Finland’s Foreign Ministry, says Finnish-Russian relations are …read more
Source: Voice of America
