Northern Europe does not trust the West

According to a survey by Finnish national broadcaster YLE, about two-thirds of Finns do not consider Russia a threat to Finland's security.

Only a third of Finns think Russia could cause them concern in the short term.

"Based on their knowledge of history, Finland has a realistic view of a worst-case scenario and will not rush to hasty conclusions. I would say that this poll reflects the real situation quite well," said Markku Kangaspuro, director of the Aleksanteri Institute, which studies issues related to Russia and Eastern Europe.

YLE conducted the poll by randomly interviewing 1,003 Finns between the ages of 15 and 79. The telephone survey was conducted in December 2014, when Finnish people had access to multi-dimensional information about the Ukraine crisis in particular and East-West tensions in general.

Finland is a country that shares a border with Russia and is part of the European Union. However, Finland is not a member of NATO and does not need US and Western European military bases to protect itself.

Finnish military does not need to join NATO

Since World War II, the Russian-Finnish border has remained stable. Therefore, Finnish people do not believe that Russia poses a threat to its neighbor as the Western media propagates.

Although NATO has repeatedly suggested inviting Finland to join the bloc with the promise that the “procedure” would only be resolved in one week, Finland has refused. Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb affirmed in December 2014 that they do not see the need to join NATO at this time because it is “inappropriate”.

In his New Year's message for 2015, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto affirmed that they want to continue friendly cooperation with Russia. "Russia has always been and will always be Finland's neighbor. We will continue to maintain a close partnership," said Mr. Niinisto.

Similarly, Sweden, another Nordic country, has also not joined NATO despite repeated invitations from the West. Sweden has always respected the will of its people and so does not want to get involved in the tensions between the East and the West.

According to Dat Viet