Aligned on the foreign policy of the USSR, Finland had maintained its sovereignty until the fall of the Soviet Union. Several voices are heard to apply this model to Ukraine and make a buffer state between Russia and the West.
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History of a notion. Synonymous with stress neutrality and limited sovereignty, the word “Finland” keeps a connotation at least negative, evoking the institutionalized hold of a powerful neighbor on a small country. “The concept of” Finland “described the process by which the USSR could take control of the foreign policy of a European country without transforming its internal regime (unlike popular democracies) as was the case for Finland After 1945, “explains the historian Georges-Henri Soutou in his book the cold war (plural, 2011).
Forgotten after the fall of the wall, the concept returns to the public debate, brandished as a repulse or, on the contrary, as possible solution to the Ukrainian crisis. On the right or to the left of the left, many voices – which for a long time call to hear the reasons for Russia – openly resume the idea without always daring the word. The hypothesis of a neutral Ukraine becoming a buffer state between the East and West seduces specialists from international relations as diplomats that see it a milestone in building a new security architecture for the Old Continent. Provided, of course, that it does not happen under the threat.
“Finlanding is not a big word and it was a success. By affirming after the Second World War his neutrality and transforming into a political choice a constraint imposed by geography, Finland has managed to preserve its independence and to be respected by the Russians “, reports Nicole Gnesotto, therust of Europe: change or perish (Tallandier, 320 pages, 20.90 euros) and vice-president of the Jacques Delors Institute stressing the need” not to lock in the alternative or Ukraine in NATO or war “.
VASTING
Geopolitical realism would thus prohibit Ukraine – as in Finland during the Cold War – NATO accessions and the European Union (EU), however, desired by a large part of the population. “Objectively, some countries are in a position in which the history, geography and strategic equilibrium around them impose limits,” said Fiodor Loukianov, editor-in-chief of the Journal Russia in Global Affairs, who passes to defend the views close to the Kremlin, deploring that the word “Finland” has “wrongly bad reputation in the West”.
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