Today is the 74th birthday of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and also the day Finland joins it. After decades of weird self-denial about Russia we state clearly where we stand. Happy it happened, I wish we had done it in the late 90’s. Estonia and Poland were right all along.

@matti yes, I wish the outcome of all this is a neighbour that looks at post-WWII (West) Germany for inspiration and forgets their imperial ambitions

@tkoola We can always hope. Hard to believe that in 2019, when I came to Finland, I was thinking of visiting Paanajärvi National Park (which is the national park bordering Oulanka on Russia's side; I live in Kuusamo), not gonna happen anytime soon, it feels like.

@matti it is a shame. That country would have so much to see just within few hours of Finnish border