Monthly Archives: October 2014

Helsinki, Finland Seven months ago, when Russia seized and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, Finns seemed relatively unconcerned. The world's northernmost country shares some 800 miles of border with its huge neighbor, but just a quarter of Finns said they felt threatened by Moscow. And a similar number told pollsters their country should consider joining NATO in interest of self-defense.

Since then, Russia's behavior has become more provocative, and not just in eastern Ukraine. During one week in August, Russian military aircraft conducted three unauthorized overflightsof Finnish airspace. The Finnish public reacted accordingly. A poll last month by Finnish daily Aamulehti showed that 43 percent of those polled perceived Russia as a danger, an increase of nearly 20 percent from March.

But support for Finland joining NATO remained almost unchanged: a mere two percent higher, the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation (YLE) found. Why hasnt Finnish wariness translated into stronger support for NATO membership? And what, if anything, would persuade Finns to join the defense pact?

Defense Minister Carl Haglund says that the foundation for the Finnish publics aversion to NATO membership stems from its complicated, and oft-misunderstood relationship with Russia. This [reluctance] goes back to [our] history, he says, especially the end of the Second World War and the cold war.

Put it this way," says Pekka Ervasti, political editor of YLE. "Finnish neutrality dies hard.

The 1948 treaty which Finland signed with the USSR which defeated Finland in two wars during World War II codified its enforced rapprochement with the Kremlin. Finland agreed not to join or assist NATO, which was established the following year. The treaty laid the basis for the peaceable and mutually beneficial relationship between Finland and the USSR which followed, along with half a century of Finnish military non-alignment. Active neutrality, Helsinki called it.

Critics had another term for it: Finlandization the process by which a democracy such as Finland avoided provoking Moscow, in return for independence and trading privileges. It's a policy that served Finns well for decades, and many are reluctant toabandon it.

A dose ofanti-Americanism is also at play, adds Ervasti. People feel that NATO is run by Americans and they fear that the US will drag us into foreign wars, like Iraq. Others worry that nuclear weapons will be stationed here.

Then there's the bottom line for business.Im not sure whether joining NATO is such a great idea in the long run, says Ami Hasan, head of Hasan & Partners, a leading Helsinki ad agency. Russia with its 150 million people is a huge potential trading partner for Finland and we have 1,300 kilometers of shared border. I doubt that Russia would be thrilled to share it with NATO.

Despite the generally warm relationship between the two countries in recent years, Russian officials have explicitly warned Finland against joining NATO. In June 2012, Russian Chief of Staff Nikolai Makarov, sounding much like the Soviet bear of yore, said that cooperation between NATO and Finland, which joined NATOs Partnership for Peace affiliate program in 1994, threatened Russias security.

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Could Putin's Russia push neutral Finland into NATO's arms?

DALLAS, Oct. 14 (UPI) -- A Russian group of hackers exploited a flaw in a computer operating system to spy on NATO and other security targets, a report says.

The Dallas based cybersecurity firm that uncovered the plot, iSight Partners, said a previously undiscovered flaw in Microsoft's Windows system allowed sensitive documents pertaining to the NATO summit held in Wales in September to be targeted.

ISight dubbed the hacking group the Sandworm Team, the Washington Post reported. It was presumably working for the Russian government and has been active since at least 2009, the report said, adding that a Polish energy firm, the Ukrainian government's computers and at least one nation in Western Europe were also targeted.

The flaw, known as zero-day for the amount of time programmers are aware of it, likely allowed hackers to find e-mails, Power Point presentations and encryption keys in computers considered secure.

Although policy statements were released after the NATO summit, much of the planning occurred in secret. The agenda included preparing a unified response to Russia's influence in Crimea and Ukraine, and plans for confronting the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

U.S. President Barack Obama attended the meeting, as did Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and high-level military and civilian leaders from each NATO country.

2014 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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Report: Russian hackers spied on NATO

Published October 15, 2014

THESSALONIKI, Greece NATO's top military commander says the alliance would welcome the withdrawal of Russian troops from a Russian region bordering Ukraine, but that it has seen no "major movement" so far.

U.S. Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told The Associated Press in Thessaloniki Wednesday that a withdrawal of all Russian troops was an "important part of bringing normalcy" to the area.

On Saturday Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered about 17,600 Russian troops to return to their bases from Rostov. The region in Russia borders east Ukraine, where pro-Russian insurgents have been battling government troops since April.

The Kremlin has said troops stationed there were participating in drills, but Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of fueling the insurgency with arms, expertise and fighters.

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NATO chief: alliance seen no 'major movement' of Russian troop withdrawal from Ukraine border

Islamabad, Oct 15 (IANS): NATO gunship helicopters violated Pakistani airspace by entering territory near its border with Afghanistan, media reported Wednesday.

According to officials, at least five helicopters were seen flying near the border and two of them entered Pakistani territory in Torkham and Pasidkhel, Dawn online reported.

The helicopters remained in Pakistani airspace for 10 minutes and returned without any action.

Sources said the helicopters crossed over through Shamshad mountains situated between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A few days back, NATO had carried out a massive assault on Taliban positions in the Shamshad mountains and had killed scores of Afghan Taliban members.

Pakistan is yet to respond to the violation and it has not yet been ascertained whether the incursion was deliberate or a slipping over of the helicopters into Pakistani airspace during routine patrolling on account of the rugged mountainous terrain.

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NATO helicopters violate Pakistani airspace