Putin Expands NATO?

Finland has always had an uneasy relationship with Russia.  It was part of the old Czarist Russian empire until Russia's capitulation in World War I gave the Finns the opportunity to gain its independence, but when the Soviet Union sought to reclaim land from the old empire's western frontier and fortify it against a possible German invasion at the start of World War II, Joseph Stalin made demands of the Finns, who refused to accept them.  The Soviet Union invaded Finland in November 1939, and the Finns held out throughout the winter of 1939-40 in the so-called Winter War before bowing to the Red Army's superiority.  (Finns foolishly cast their lot with the Nazis when Hitler invaded the Soviet Union, only to be on the losing side again.)  Finland had to promise to remain a neutral nation after World War II to maintain its independence, which meant not joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Now, however, the people who invented the Molotov cocktail in the Winter War are on the verge of joining NATO thanks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where the the locals are mixing Molotov cocktails up in every kitchen sink they can find.  Finland is afraid of Putin possibly threatening its 800-mile border with Russia, and the Finns have begun a process to enter NATO membership.  Sweden - always hostile to Russian expansion and being the only country on Europe's far northern land mass that doesn't border Russia (yes, Norway borders Russia, check the map) - is even looking into the idea.

If Vladimir Putin thought he could intimidate NATO, he really screwed up big time.

But it's not all bad news for Putin.  French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has proposed that NATO enter an alliance with Russia once the war in Ukraine - a war President Biden is helping Ukraine fight by giving it $800 million in additional military aid - is over.

Le Pen wants France and Britain to enter into an alliance with Russia?  What is this, 1914?

For more about Russo-Finnish relations, watch this video.