What if NATO v. Russia?

Unless you have gotten isolated for the past few months, you should know about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But recently, another potentially groundbreaking move has occurred. Finland and Sweden have officially applied to join NATO.

That comes as Russia is threatening those who do try to join. Its invasion of Ukraine tells as much that Russia is willing to fight if tensions skyrocket. Although the two countries’ applications haven’t gotten approved, many think they’re not far from that. Their approval could potentially make Russian President Vladimir Putin more enraged. Why? And what is NATO anyway?

The NATO we have been talking about is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It was founded in 1949 by 12 countries: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Over the years, other countries have added to the alliance. These include Greece, Germany, Spain, Poland, etc., and NATO now has 30 member countries. The main point of this alliance was to protect all its members from invasion and provide a coordinated defense. If the applications from Sweden and Finland get approved, and one gets invaded by Russia, NATO would provide help, according to its rules. However, Russia also gets feared by other countries due to its arsenal of nuclear weapons, which, if launched, could start a nuclear war and possibly bring the world to ruins. That’s how Russia has managed to keep NATO at bay.

To understand the situation, we need to recap why Russia invaded Ukraine. Countries like Ukraine and Finland border Russia. It didn’t want NATO expansion and launched the war on Ukraine, trying to signal other leaning countries that wanted to join NATO not to. However, that seemed to have backfired.

But don’t think that Russia is on its own. Russia also has its alliance (though much smaller than NATO), made up of 6 former Soviet countries. Those are the following: Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. This alliance is called the CSTO or the Collective Security Treaty Organization. It closely resembles NATO, intending to protect all member countries.

If Finland and Sweden’s applications get approved, tensions will rise, with a standoff between Russia and NATO. Why didn’t Russia bother Finland and Sweden before (and vice versa)? Well, Finland and Sweden weren’t that threatened by Russia until the invasion of Ukraine, which scared them into joining NATO. Before that, these two countries (and more) had been neutral. The thing with neutral countries is that even though they’re not officially in any alliance, they could be close friends with one. Making them the alliance’s “allies”? I don’t know. What is making Russia start conflicts is that it has gone crazy over the fact that more of these neutral countries are becoming members of NATO, and with NATO’s borders expanding to neighbor those of Russia. That could become a threat to the Russian security of its borders. So to make sure NATO expansion stops, Russia invaded Ukraine as a threat to other countries.

I would use one sentence to summarize all the complications and events that unfolded with Russia invading Ukraine: It is never a good thing to invade another country. That’s it. If you don’t want to get invaded, then don’t do it to your neighbors because all you get is an even worse situation. Wars have taught us time and time again only one thing, that peace is better than violence. Winston Churchill was quite right: “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Do you want to repeat history, dear reader? That’s the end of this production from the New News Newsminute. Thank you, and tune in next time for more global updates.