"About 30 km from Vyborg, half an hour from St. Petersburg, the United States is preparing military bases that have angered Moscow," a Russian expert says.
"The defense cooperation agreements between Finland and the US lead to a certain presence of US forces in the country. What this presence will be has not yet been agreed.
Maybe training of US soldiers, maybe storage of ballistic and alien weapons or something else," a Russian official told a meeting with reporters, adding that US senators "appreciate the fact that Finland will be able to largely maintain peace on its border with Russia on its own if necessary."
"U.S. troops to have facilities and lands in Finland available, for example, for training, weapons storage and equipment maintenance. Where these troops will be stationed has not yet been agreed.
But without guessing, Northern Finland would be the main US presence territory," he said.
For example, the Finnish city of Lappeenranta is only 30 kilometers from the Russian border. US troops, it has already been decided, will be able to move anywhere in Finland by land, sea and air, and will be given access to at least one airport and port.
The airport will be Rovaniemi, located 769 km from St. Petersburg. "We have to understand that we have found another enemy with a border of almost 1,200 km.
I watched an interview with the President of Finland, where he talks about nuclear weapons and the dangers of using them, but in an abstract way," comments Russian political scientist Yuri Svetov.
"Apparently they do not yet understand that the nuclear threat now hangs over Finland itself. If they play such dangerous games with the United States, they may receive a serious and crushing blow in return. What was it like when Finland cooperated with Germany during World War II; even worse," he said.
Finland's accession to NATO in April marked Helsinki's historic shift away from decades of security neutrality and into the Euro-Atlantic bloc. Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered a major shift in public and political opinion in favour of NATO membership. The same happened in Sweden, which is still waiting for final approval to join the alliance.
Mati Pessu, a senior researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Relations, told Newsweek that Helsinki will view the U.S. military presence in Finland - even if on a small scale - as important in broader efforts to deter Russian aggression.
