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Finland to discuss joining Nato in wake of Ukraine invasion
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Finnish lawmakers will discuss the possibility of their country joining Nato in response to Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine on Tuesday.
© Jussi Nukari /AP Sanna Marin, Finland's prime minister, announced Helsinki would send weapons to help Ukraine. - Jussi Nukari /AP
The parliament debate is being held the day after an opinion poll showed that a majority of Finns
were in favour of joining the Alliance for the first time.
Finland, which was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1939 and has Europe’s longest border with Russia, avoided taking sides in the Cold War and pursued a policy of non-alignment.
Increasing Russian belligerence,
culminating in the invasion of Ukraine, has led to a landmark shift in attitudes in a country that was long reluctant to join Nato.
“It is very understandable that many Finns have changed or are changing their minds after Russia started waging war on Ukraine,” Sanna Marin, the prime minister, said on Monday.
The parliament debate was triggered after a petition to hold a referendum on Nato membership got 50,000 signatures in less than a week
Mr Putin listed Finland and neighbouring Sweden, which is also non-aligned, as countries that should be barred from Alliance membership as part of his security demands to the West before he invaded Ukraine. Finland insists on its right to apply for Nato membership if it wishes.
The poll by Finnish broadcasting company Yle found that 53 per cent of Finns were now in favour of joining Nato. That increases to 66 per cent if neighbouring Sweden, which is also non-aligned, joins at the same time, which has been mooted.
Some 28 per cent of Finns opposed membership and 19 per cent were unsure in the first opinion poll taken since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It was carried out over three days, including the day before the invasion.
In a January opinion poll, 30 per cent of Finns were in favour of membership. A poll in December found that only 24 per cent of Finnish citizens were positive towards joining, an increase of 2 per cent from last year, with 51 per cent against membership. In 2017, just 19 per cent of Finns were in favour of joining Nato.
Nato insiders believe any membership process would be relatively quick one because the countries already comply with the many of the standards expected by the 30-nation bloc.
Ms Marin, who did not say if she personally backed joining Nato, said in Brussels that Finland would take the “historic” step of offering Ukraine weapons to help fight off the Russian invasion.
Elina Valtonen is a MP and vice-president of the National Coalition Party, which has supported Nato membership for Finland since 2006 and is in opposition to Ms Marin’s centre-Left Social Democratic Party led coalition.
She told the Telegraph in January, “Finland is closer than it has ever been to applying for Nato membership. For the first time people feel that the aggression that Russia has been executing towards its neighbours [...] also concerns Finland and Sweden.”
At the end of December, Atte Harjanne, the parliamentary head of the Green Party, called on it to reverse its long held stance against Nato membership and actively campaign for Finland to join the alliance.
Meanwhile, Alko, the state-owned monopoly that sells alcohol in Finland, has announced it will stop selling Russian vodka because of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
“The situation in Ukraine is shocking and we have taken it seriously,” Anu Koskinen, a spokeswoman for the group, which offers more than 11,000 products including around 30 Russian products, mostly vodka, told AFP.
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hopefully no country will come to their aid, can just give them moral support 
