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Minna Ålander 🌻

@minna_alander

Jul 9

At the risk of being accused of both Germany-bashing and Germany-appeasement again:

A thread about ideology and idealism in German politics, the looming energy crisis and why Germany needs pressure from the outside to stay on track

Germany has (had) a strong image as a rational actor in international politics. German thoroughness (deutsche Gründlichkeit) is well known as well as German engineering. Both facilitate an image of high functionality and rationality.

Merkel, who very much personified German politics during her term, further strengthened the rational image. She was very much a no-nonsense, anti-populist, reliable kind of politician. She communicated little with the public but when she did, it was convincing and clear.

Read 12 tweets

Minna Ålander 🌻

@minna_alander

Jul 5

@yleuutiset

👀 instead of building up troops at the Finnish border, Russia seems to be moving them away.

@yleuutiset reports based on satellite pictures that the Alakurtti base right next to 🇫🇮 is missing a significant number of equipment compared to mid-May
yle.fi/uutiset/3-1251…

The Alakurtti base is a motorised infantry brigade specialised in Arctic warfare and was established only in 2014 (!). Normally it would have 4000 troops but the number of missing equipment (incl armoured transport vehicles) indicates that a combat battalion has been sent to 🇺🇦

This is ofc bad news for Ukraine but also indicates the low priority of Finland compared to Ukraine, NATO application notwithstanding.

It will likely take years until Russia could build up substantial capacities at the Finnish border

Read 5 tweets

Minna Ålander 🌻

@minna_alander

Jul 4

In Finnish media, the live feeds are consistently about “Russia’s attack”. In Swedish media, I see “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”.

In German media, it’s mostly “war in Ukraine” - which is already an upgrade from “Ukraine crisis/conflict” - but terms used in media matter

Calling it “war in Ukraine” obfuscates who’s waging the war.

Normalise calling it Russia’s war

Edit: I checked some of the main 🇩🇪 news outlets to see how often “Russia’s war of aggression” is used. When I searched “russischer Angriffskrieg”, there were articles e.g. in Zeit and Welt with that description. But on their homepages (web version) it’s mostly war in Ukraine

Read 8 tweets

Minna Ålander 🌻

@minna_alander

Jul 3

@walberque

Thanks @walberque for the Q - I think this is one of the things most difficult for foreign observers to understand about 🇫🇮🇸🇪 NATO path:

That the two are so same same but different

(Recommend also the original thread by @patrikoksanen)

https://twitter.com/walberque/status/1543613388978360320

For 🇫🇮, security policy is always a priority. The Finnish comprehensive security concept encompasses the whole society and entails much more than just military defence. 🇫🇮 also never abolished conscription and has kept up notable defence capabilities even after Cold War

Part of Finnish security policy was the so-called “NATO option”: remaining outside of the alliance as long as Russia stays put but keeping the option to join open, should the security environment change.

Read 10 tweets

Minna Ålander 🌻

@minna_alander

Jul 2

So, what’s up with the 🇫🇮🇸🇪🇹🇷 extradition business after the three countries signed the memorandum of understanding on Monday ?

Almost before the ink was dry, Turkey already announced it has demanded the extradition of 21 people from Sweden and 12 from Finland.

Finnish Ministry of Justice stated on Thursday that no new extradition requests have been made from Turkey so far. Swedish Minister of Justice and Interior Morgan Johansson reminded that no Swedish citizens will be extradited.

In any case, both countries will process any requests according to their judicial procedures and the European Convention on Extradition, just like until now, and both 🇫🇮&🇸🇪 Ministries of Justice have emphasised that political considerations will play no role.

Read 7 tweets

Minna Ålander 🌻

@minna_alander

Jun 29

Initial reactions to the 🇫🇮🇸🇪🇹🇷 MoU range from outrage in 🇸🇪 to celebrations of a win OR disappointment of Erdogan selling himself too cheap in 🇹🇷 and some scepticism about the trustworthiness of the deal in 🇫🇮

Here some ideas what the MoU may or may not mean in practice:

It confirmed that
- Erdogan was on the way to manoeuvre himself into a corner with ever-rising demands that couldn’t realistically be met by 🇫🇮🇸🇪
- time was on 🇫🇮🇸🇪 side and Erdogan needed a win rather sooner than later
- 🇹🇷 wanted to keep terrorism on NATO’s agenda

In all 3 countries there seem to be some misunderstandings about the character of the MoU. It’s not a contract. It’s a diplomatic agreement that can mean many things but doesn’t necessarily have to.

(Se että päästiin sopimukseen ei tarkoita että lopputulos on sitova sopimus).

Read 16 tweets

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