No, not really. The stolen Karelia is lost and we’ve made our peace with that fact.
There are a few idiots who nowadays mainly screech on the Internet and want to take it back, but about 99,9% of our population is content with the current borders
As is common to them, the Russians have not developed the infrastructure of the region and the old Finnish cities are in in pretty downbeat shape. The roads are in terrible condition (except the ones that lead to oligarch’s summer villas) and they’ve dumped their garbage everywhere. I’ve visited the fabled land of my ancestors and what I saw just made me sad.
Restoring Karelia even to a pre-WWII-level would take decades and probably cost tens of billions or even more. The population is almost purely ethnic Russians - what would we do with them?
If by some magic the land would be offered back to us, free of charge and without the current population, we would still be wary to take it. The old border basically went through the suburbs of St.Petersburg, that would eventually cause severe problems due to the unchanging nature of Russia. So no, let them keep it as long as they stay on their side of the border.
The last time they attacked we were unprepared and still they paid a heavy price. Now we’ve had almost 80 years to prepare our defenses, and we have oh so many glorious surprises ready if the need ever arises.
That is credible. Sorry about Karelia, it sounds like it WAS beautiful. Why did your country re open the border with Russia after recently closing it for about 2 weeks? They say it was due to illegal crossings? Your thoughts? Also, thanks for sending thousands of those little cube survival stoves to Ukranian forces, can you ship one to me COD? It’s 5C here.
The border was reopened because we have no desire to keep the border closed, we have many citizens with Russian ancestry and we want them to be able to move across the border to see their relatives.
But because Russia still keeps pushing illegal immigrants towards our border, we had to close the border again. Putin probably thinks he’s “punishing” us for joining NATO.
It would serve everyone best if they stopped playing this stupid game, even my own extended family has been affected by the closing of the border.
Do the Finns really want it back after Russia has had their way with the area for over 80 years?
No, not really. The stolen Karelia is lost and we’ve made our peace with that fact.
There are a few idiots who nowadays mainly screech on the Internet and want to take it back, but about 99,9% of our population is content with the current borders
As is common to them, the Russians have not developed the infrastructure of the region and the old Finnish cities are in in pretty downbeat shape. The roads are in terrible condition (except the ones that lead to oligarch’s summer villas) and they’ve dumped their garbage everywhere. I’ve visited the fabled land of my ancestors and what I saw just made me sad.
Restoring Karelia even to a pre-WWII-level would take decades and probably cost tens of billions or even more. The population is almost purely ethnic Russians - what would we do with them?
If by some magic the land would be offered back to us, free of charge and without the current population, we would still be wary to take it. The old border basically went through the suburbs of St.Petersburg, that would eventually cause severe problems due to the unchanging nature of Russia. So no, let them keep it as long as they stay on their side of the border.
The last time they attacked we were unprepared and still they paid a heavy price. Now we’ve had almost 80 years to prepare our defenses, and we have oh so many glorious surprises ready if the need ever arises.
That is credible. Sorry about Karelia, it sounds like it WAS beautiful. Why did your country re open the border with Russia after recently closing it for about 2 weeks? They say it was due to illegal crossings? Your thoughts? Also, thanks for sending thousands of those little cube survival stoves to Ukranian forces, can you ship one to me COD? It’s 5C here.
The border was reopened because we have no desire to keep the border closed, we have many citizens with Russian ancestry and we want them to be able to move across the border to see their relatives.
But because Russia still keeps pushing illegal immigrants towards our border, we had to close the border again. Putin probably thinks he’s “punishing” us for joining NATO.
It would serve everyone best if they stopped playing this stupid game, even my own extended family has been affected by the closing of the border.
Excellent trolling - I almost believed you were Finnish.
Miksi luulet etten olisi? Eikä tapana ole ollut trollata, sen jätän ryssille ja vähämielisille.
I would suggest using a different argument
“A centre of trade with Russia” is pretty useless if they decide to attack Finland over Karelia or have hostile relations with them over it.
No we don’t. It’s too late