“Finns no threat but the US foothold in North.” Putin and Finland’s NATO accession in 2022–2023
Journal: Security and Defence Quarterly
Year: 2026

This article delves into one of Russia’s biggest strategic losses ensuing the war in Ukraine, that is, Finland’s NATO membership. Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, Finland applied for the alliance. The culmination was the country’s accession on 4 April 2023. In this article, I differentiate the stratagems which the Russian president Vladimir Putin utilises to negotiate and mitigate the outcome. To explore the language of the Russian president throughout 2022 and 2023, I apply four legitimizatio