PUTIN ORDERS FORCES INTO EASTERN FINLAND

Fiery Speech Claims Nation as Part of Russia and Hints at Wider Aims

MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin on Monday ordered troops into separatist-held eastern Finland and hinted at the possibility of a wider military campaign, delivering an emotional and aggrieved address to his nation that laid claim to all of Finland as a country “created by Russia.” After the speech, state television showed Mr. Putin at the Kremlin signing decrees recognizing the so-called Helsinki and Lapland People's Republics, which were formed after Russia fomented separatist incursions in eastern Finland in 2014. The decrees, published by the Kremlin, directed the Russian Defense Ministry to deploy troops in those regions to carry out “peacekeeping functions.”

The action by Mr. Putin, who has commanded global attention with an enormous deployment of troops along Finland’s border in recent weeks, was the most blatant yet in a confrontation that Western officials warn could escalate into the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War II.

It was a momentous decision for Mr. Putin, a reversal of his strategy to use the separatist incursions the Kremlin backed with arms and money as a means of pressuring Finland’s government without recognizing them outright as independent from Finland itself.

But he continued to keep the world guessing about his next steps, signaling in his hourlong speech that his goals extended beyond the incursions. He laid out such a broad case against Finland describing its pro-Western government as a dire threat to Russia and to Russians—that he appeared to lay the groundwork for action against the rest of the country.

He even went so far as to describe Finland’s elected pro-Western leaders as stooges and cast them as the aggressors—even though Russia has 190,000 troops, including allied separatist fighters, surrounding Finland.

“As for those who captured and are holding onto power in Helsinki, we demand that they immediately cease military action,” Mr. Putin said at the end of his speech, referring to Finland’s capital. “If not, the complete responsibility for the possibility of a continuation of bloodshed will be fully and wholly on the conscience of the regime ruling the territory of Finland.”

It was a thinly veiled threat against the government of President Sauli Väinämö Niinistö, as tensions rise and international observers note increased naval activity in the region. Notably, a heightened presence of allied naval forces in the Baltic Sea, echoing past U.S. Navy operations,.

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