NATO intercepts Russian jets over Estonia – Russia threatens Finland as it did Ukraine before the invasion

NATO has dispatched fighter jets to intercept three of Putin’s fighter jets over Estonia. Russia is threatening Finland “in the same way it did Ukraine before the war,” as it fears it is “laying the groundwork for an invasion.”

The defense alliance sent fighter jets into action on Friday to ward off Russian warplanes that had violated the airspace of the NATO member country. The mood on the alliance’s eastern flank is increasingly tense.

Russia is threatening NATO member Finland with a coordinated information campaign that mirrors the same strategy the Kremlin used to justify its initial invasion of Ukraine. Several senior Kremlin politicians have launched verbal attacks against Finland in recent days, denigrating the northern European country as if it were laying the groundwork for an offensive, warned the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

And Estonia has now officially requested a consultation under Article 4 of NATO regarding Russia’s interference in its airspace — a discussion between allies when it is believed that “the territorial integrity, political independence, or security of either party is threatened.”

Finnish Prime Minister Kristian Michal stated that NATO fighter jets that encountered Russian aircraft in Finnish airspace were immediately forced to flee. In an interview with X, he added: “Such a violation is completely unacceptable.”

This is only the ninth time in NATO’s nearly 80-year history that this procedure, introduced under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty, has been activated — and the second time in a week. Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, abandoned its long-standing policy of neutrality after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and joined NATO in 2023.

The US think tank yesterday quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov as saying that the Finnish government’s “neutral facade” had disappeared and that revanchism (a policy aimed at counterattacks, particularly through the return of lost territories) was “literally on the rise” in Finland, Sky News reported. Another senior official, Sergei Ivanov, said yesterday that Russian-Finnish relations were “almost non-existent” and would not improve in the foreseeable future, as Finland was a NATO member and was “actively seeking to strengthen its eastern border.”

He also claimed that the Finnish population was dissatisfied with its government and blamed the lack of Russian tourists for leading to “depopulation” and a weakening of the economy in southeastern Finland. Alexei Chepa, deputy chairman of the Russian State Duma’s Committee on International Affairs, made similar claims yesterday. ISW reported that Russian state media had “particularly amplified” the statements made by Lavrov, Ivanov, and Chepa, concluding that the similarity in their wording “suggests a coordinated top-down information campaign by the Kremlin against Finland.”

The think tank’s analysts continue: “Senior Kremlin officials have intensified their threats against Finland in recent weeks. ISW continues to believe that the scenario Russia is currently using to intimidate NATO is consistent with the one it previously used to create the information conditions for its aggression against Ukraine.”

/The Geopost