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Vladimir Putin 'Wants to Regain Finland' Says Close Adviser
The International Business Times ^ | March 29, 2014 | Jack Moore

Posted on 03/30/2014 5:56:30 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

One of Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest ex-advisers has claimed that the ex-KGB agent ultimately wants to reclaim Finland for Russia.

Andrej Illiaronov, Putin's economic adviser between 2000 and 2005 and now senior member of the Cato Institute think tank, said that "parts of Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic States and Finland are states where Putin claims to have ownership."

"Putin's view is that he protects what belongs to him and his predecessors," he said.

When asked if Putin wishes to return to the Russia of the last tsar, Nicholas II, Illiaronov said: "Yes, if it becomes possible."

Illiaronov admits that Finland is not Putin's primary concern at present but, if not stopped in other areas of Eastern Europe, the issue will one day arise. Russian troops are currently massing on the eastern border of Ukraine, following Russia's recent annexation of Crimea.

"Putin said several times that the Bolsheviks and Communists made big mistakes. He could well say that the Bolsheviks in 1917 committed treason against Russian national interests by providing Finland's independence," Illiaronov told a Swedish news website....

(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Russia
KEYWORDS: finland; obama; putin; russia
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To: RoosterRedux
If Obama weren't such a pussy, he would not have tried.

That is true. Can you imagine him even hinting such if Ronald Reagan were the president?

41 posted on 03/30/2014 7:05:25 PM PDT by OldPossum ("It's" is the contraction of "it" and "is"; think about ITS implications.)
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To: WhiskeyX
Putin is enamored of Stalin

Interestingly enough, one of Putin's grandfathers was a chef for Stalin. From the Wikipedia entry for Putin:

"Putin's paternal grandfather, Spiridon Ivanovich Putin (1879–1965), was a chef who at one time or another cooked for Vladimir Lenin, Lenin's wife Nadezhda Krupskaya, and on several occasions for Joseph Stalin."

42 posted on 03/30/2014 7:07:05 PM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: PROCON

In Finland and most of Eastern Europe, the 30’s and 40’s were a time where every choice was a bad one...


43 posted on 03/30/2014 7:08:44 PM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: goldstategop

“Finland is pro-Russia”

I am not really aware of Finland’s predisposition towards other countries. I had thought they would be more pro-US, than pro-Russia.


44 posted on 03/30/2014 7:11:54 PM PDT by ForYourChildren (Christian Education [ RomanRoadsMedia.com - a classical Christian approach to homeschool])
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

45 posted on 03/30/2014 7:18:11 PM PDT by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Tijeras_Slim
In Finland and most of Eastern Europe, the 30’s and 40’s were a time where every choice was a bad one...

Excellent point. And one thing to look at is how well those countries treated their Jewish populations under German pressure. Finland, by and large, did the right thing.

Jews in Finland

46 posted on 03/30/2014 7:21:37 PM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

!


47 posted on 03/30/2014 7:37:57 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Caligula / 0'Reid / 0'Pelosi)
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To: PROCON

They had no choice. The Soviets invaded them and then became our ally. The Finns didn’t have anyone to turn to.

They did their own fighting, though, and the Soviets paid a terrible price. But when the war was over they were treated as an enemy by the West.


48 posted on 03/30/2014 7:38:39 PM PDT by marron
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To: PGalt
(some Finn ancestry here, my grandmother came over on the boat…although I never learned much about it)

My grandmother and grandfather came over in the early 1900's. My grandfather was in the Tsar's army. They came through Canada. My granddad took a boat and landed in the U.S. along with his oldest son. He then went back to Canada and brought my grandmother through Detroit.

49 posted on 03/30/2014 8:41:32 PM PDT by Starstruck (If my reply offends, you probably don't understand sarcasm or criticism...or do.)
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To: VanDeKoik

“Next week I fully expect the Russians to be marching into South Africa, because you know it CAN happen.”

The Canary Islands. They will march across the Atlantic Ocean into the Canary Islands. Because Putin, who now runs communist Russia, is *exactly* like Hitler, and Hitler had canaries so now Putin needs them. You heard it here first. The Soviet Russia, led by a Nazi, will move on the Canary Islands.


50 posted on 03/30/2014 8:50:40 PM PDT by Psalm 144 (FIGHT! FIGHT! SEVERE CONSERVATIVE AND THE WILD RIGHT!)
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To: bigheadfred

Some Aldo Nova! There’s a name that one doesn’t hear much anymore. Great stuff...


51 posted on 03/30/2014 9:30:39 PM PDT by Birdsbane ("Onward through the fog!" ... Oat Willie)
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To: Fiji Hill
... little fighting between Britain and Finland occurred.

It is worth noting that while Britain had the capacity to land troops in Norway, and did so early on, Sweden refused to allow them transit across Swedish territory to get to Finland.

52 posted on 03/30/2014 10:03:59 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: PROCON
And still pissed at the Finns for siding with Nazi Germany during WWII :-(

The reality there is that they didn't have a whole lot of choice in that, considering that Stalin had *already* invaded Finland. To their credit, the Finns totally rejected the Nazis' 'Final Solution' on Finnish soil, and the Hitler regime never pressed the issue with them (note that no Finns, of any description, at any government level were even accused of war crimes, let alone tried for them.) They also get credit from me for being the *only* nation in WW2 who paid their financial assessment in full. Thus, while 'officially', Finland was named as an Axis nation, their conduct in both the war, and after, mark them as a special case...

the infowarrior

53 posted on 03/30/2014 10:20:39 PM PDT by infowarrior
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; All

Finland secured its independence from Tzarist Russia. Not clear if it fought on the side of Russia “allies” (against the German and Austrians) during WWI or against it. In any event it borrowed money from the US and was the only country to repay its debts.

Todays Finland (Suomi) is half the size it once was. Prior to WWII it comprized most of the Karelian peninsula and there is a remnant “Finnish “republic”. Which was taken by Stalin in reparations after the 2nd world war for fighting with the Nazis after Stalin had invaded it. The Finns fought the Russians to a standstill and was led by a general known as Field Marshall Mannerheim. Who also played a role in the Nazi advance to the Black Sea.


54 posted on 03/30/2014 11:29:28 PM PDT by mosesdapoet (Serious contribution pause.Please continue onto meaningless venting no one reads.)
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To: goldstategop

“Finland is pro-Russia so Russia has no real need to take it over. The relations between the two countries are quite close.”

There you go again with yet another outrageous lie used as grotesquely false propaganda. The Finns generally speaking absolutely loathe and despise Russians because of the Russian oppressions and aggressions against the Finns.

Russia according to the Finns. 27.2.2010
http://www.finlandforthought.net/2010/02/27/russia-according-to-the-finns/


55 posted on 03/30/2014 11:35:14 PM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: marron

“But when the war was over they were treated as an enemy by the West.”

Finland recaptured its lost territory and advanced a limited distance into the Soviet Union and stopped their offensive. The Germans and Hitler were furious with the Finns for refusing to continue the offensive and finish the Soviet defenses at Leningrad. The Finns remained adamant and limited their offensive to defending Finland’s territorial integrity and sparing the Russians in Leningrad the further participation of the Finnish forces against them. This humanitarian act and Finland’s military and civilian losses fighting the retreating German forces in Finland earned some understanding and forbearance from Stalin’s Soviet Union and the Western Allies during the war and after the war.


56 posted on 03/30/2014 11:44:31 PM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: ForYourChildren

He’s spouting false propaganda. Finns hate the Russians and/or the Russian governments that have oppressed them for centuries.


57 posted on 03/30/2014 11:46:26 PM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: hinckley buzzard

“It is worth noting that while Britain had the capacity to land troops in Norway, and did so early on, Sweden refused to allow them transit across Swedish territory to get to Finland.”

Yes, Britain wanted to make Finalnd its ally against the invading Soviet Union, a German ally in 1940 Winter War, but the Swedish refusal to grant the transit rights it later granted to Germany move into Norway doomed the effort.


58 posted on 03/30/2014 11:51:38 PM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: Norm Lenhart
This one was both. Drop dead gorgeous and ‘fuzzy’.

Sounds like that Mexican artist with a stache and hairy pits who was Trotsky's gf.


Frida Kahlo (self-portrait)

59 posted on 03/30/2014 11:53:22 PM PDT by cynwoody
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To: marron

“They did their own fighting, though, and the Soviets paid a terrible price.”

Yeah, I think they called it Russs-Finnish Biatholon Practicum.

The Russians would be fools to go into Finland. But...we are talking about the Russians.


60 posted on 03/31/2014 12:16:54 AM PDT by rbmillerjr (Russians to the Left of me, Useful Idiots to the Right...)
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