Finland is a country that knows a thing or two about Russian aggression. After all, the Finns fought a war against Russia in 1940, as Joseph Stalin tried to pull off a land grab in Finland, in the midst of World War II raging in Europe. And yet, up until this year Finland has maintained a more-or-less neutral position in international affairs and had resisted joining NATO.

Russia's war in Ukraine quickly changed all of that, with the Finns looking set to formally apply for NATO membership in the coming weeks ... on the way to becoming part of the Alliance by the end of this year. Not surprisingly, the Russians are not thrilled about that prospect.

Russia is vowing to take ‘retaliatory steps’ after Finland announced it will move to join NATO without delay; Sweden working on a similar move. It's just some of the unintended consequences of Vladimir Putin's move to seize Ukraine ... as he's managed to increase unity and cooperation among NATO countries to their high levels, perhaps since the Cold War.

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