Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago was an enormous shock to Europeans. Used to 30 years of post-Cold War peace, they had imagined European security would be built alongside a more democratic Russia, not reconstructed against a revisionist imperial war machine.
There was no bigger shock than in Finland, with its long border and historical tension with Russia, and in Sweden, which had dismantled most of its army, air force and navy in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
After the decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to destroy a sovereign neighbor, both Finland and Sweden rapidly decided to apply to join the NATO alliance, the only clear guarantee of collective defense against a newly aggressive and reckless Russia.