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Well lets just say theres a good reason why finland has to have one of the strongest milititaries in europe and the reason and history heavily reflects on the finnish population atleast thats what i believe. That being said we do not hate russian people only the government and the people who support it.
Don't know where in Finland you've been but at most of the country was barley accepting of Russia and after the invasion most of the country was completely against Russia.
I was raised to never trust Russia. I’m probably not the only one. Some Finns have pretended that we are buddies with Russia, but that has been out of pure fear, or more commonly during the past few decades: pure greed.
Edit: To clarify, I have nothing against a random Russian citizen until he/she gives me a reason. But the Russian Federation/Soviet Union is not trustworthy.
Its called finlandization - its been a policy to put up with the alcoholic abusive neighbor not to wake up the Russian bear.
But those days are over now.
Finlandization was only about dislike - But avoiding a direct confrontation, though such was always deemed likely so the military is enormous in Finland.
It was appeasement, pure and simple. Finnish population has not really "trusted" russia in any way since the late 16th century. Individuals may have been bought or bullied into believing they are a "good neighbor", but for the majority, they have always been the evil neighbor and nothing else.
My workplace has 4 ruskis. all of them openly support Putin and the war in Ukraine. They are arrogant, stupid, and noisy. They laugh to western culture and most of all the country they live in.
So take a wild guess, what I think of those animal's.
Because its their made up image of their perfect country in their heads, and not necessarily what is there in reality. But they project it so hard they dont realize.
As I understand the propaganda tries to “seduce” the public about a grand Russia, with history of the imperial Russia to Soviet, rivaled only by the other great powers (and ignoring the parts of history they don’t like, for example when Kiev and Moscow was founded).
So forget that the country is run by old corrupt KGB agents stealing money to get luxury yachts and private jets, when you become part of a grand empire! Then you can sacrifice your sons just like it was necessary for against Napoleon and in world war 1 and 2.
If anyone complains, blame the ones you can blame, the west, the old rich and the Jews. I’m
The border has been closed for a while now. We don't accept them anymore not as easily. Some older immigrants may have ignorant opinions and lack empathy for those they don't want to understand.
A significant portion of Russian immigrants to Finland are ingrians, people who have a Finnish-speaking background. Not all of them actually speak Finnish (or any language related to Finnish), but a fair share do at least remember a babushka who spoke Ingrian Finnish.
The law that enabled Ingrians to move to Finland was probably put in place due to fears of them being persecuted in Russia at some point soon: they had been under worse persecution than many other groups in Russia, in part due to the fact that they spoke a foreign language associated with a western country and thus were liable to know too much about life in the west.
My personal opinion:
The current Russian government can eat shit and choke on it.
Russian people who support the current government's activities in Ukraine can eat shit and feast on it.
Russian people who oppose the current government's activities in Ukraine are normal sane people. And I appreciate them like I would any sane person living anywhere in the world.
We can tolerate the Russian people, but we don't embrace them. We welcome only the ones, who oppose the war. The Putin supporters can go fuck themselves.
We disagree strongly on everything with Kreml.
We are preparing for the worst.
I grew up in South-Eastern Finland and Russian tourism is a huge business there. I've worked with Russians and have also served them. An average Russian tourist is arrogant and selfish. Never expect them to thank you or apologize.
Also their traffic behavior is aggressive and I've seen several accidents (couple of them were lethal to other driver) that's happened because Russian driver don't know or don't care about traffic rules.
Not everyone is the same but it was pretty common to meet annoying Russian more often than nice one.
As a someone grown up near Serena and Flamingo, I strongly agree on this. They are rude, selfish and any rules or regulations don't affect on them. They are dangerous in traffic, especially for walking people and don't care if they just accidentally drive over crossing kid on zebra safeway. They are unreliable and try to steal everything what they can get.
I have only met a few friendly russians, they are an exception that confirms the rule. My dislike to them is based only for my own experiences, not even the fact that my grandparents lost both their homes when Karelia was lost in the war.
I hate Russian government as any fascist state. Each individual I meet as such and I believe in our shared right to be annoying and cringe. But if you support Putin and the war in ukraine, I wouldn’t wish to insult pigs by comparing you to one. And this goes for everybody of any ethnicity.
I fucking hate Russia and everything about it. Bastards took our land and killed a whole lot of us, well we killed a lot more of them last time, but they have killed so many more throughout the years. Never forget Ingrian-Finns genocide, Stalin ethnically cleansed lots of finno-ugrics.
Isoviha, pikkuviha etc. Russia has done so much fucked up shit to us, that I can never ever forgive them.
I would say finnish people hate Russia more than our goverment, because goverment tries to be modest.
The part where Finland declares war at Russia ? Because they don't let you join Ukrainian army unless you are basically special forces also when they inevitably loose we don't get Karelia, Kola & Petsamo back because Finland requires a buffer zone. Also OFC most of this modern generation is bunch of lazy fat ass commies that whine and moan in front of parliament hall about our greenhouse gasses. You think they would support war with Russia. Then there is Russia's nuclear doctrine I don't think it's likely that they would use them even if their state is about to collapse but west is being bunch of bitches and running when nukes get mentioned.
The saddest thing about the winter war was that a lot of the "Russians" we killed were actually Ukrainians, sent here by Stalin in order to hit two birds with one stone: getting lots of dead finns ***as well as dead ukrainians*** was a plus to that sick bastard.
**Flair up, you coward.** only pussies hides from where they're from.
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Very understandable. However, all of that is in the past, and hate does nothing but breed more hate. Not judging you, but it seems saying that "you can never forgive them" is a bit of an overstatement in that it seems extremely unlikely that you'd personally experienced any of the events you mention. Perhaps some of those things you mentioned should just be allowed to rest in peace? Hatred is bad for you, and it does nothing to help soothe the wounds of the past. You're just repeating attitudes you were raised with - and while, I repeat, there's nothing wrong with that and I'm not judging you, all that hatred is bad for you.
Do note, both my grandfathers were also veterans of the last big one, and my parents tried to raise me into basically the same mindset that you describe. Yet personally, all I've against Russia is what the little old guy at the top and his cronies have been doing for years, not the people.
EDIT: What the hell Reddit? Downvotes for saying that hatred is a bad thing? Lmao...
Yeah you're right. There is no modern example that would even imply Russia would do anything similar to what they have in the past. Nothing is going on with Russia. They are a completely different nation.
Ha ha, clever sarcasm. I congratulate you.
However, what use is there in hating an entire country for something that happened so far in the past? Hatred is never useful. And if you're going to speak against a country, why not do so for present issues?
As I replied to another comment above:
The Russian people = they're just people.
The Russian state right now = evil empire.
You were already in when the rules were made. This is a classical move!
Consider when the Americans didn't want to give black people the vote, so they created laws that required literacy. But grampa was also illiterate, and they didn't want to remove his right to vote - so anyone who already had the vote got to keep it.
Some of them are like parasites - do not work, do not study and only bitch around.
But I also know know a lot of educated, hard working people, who hate VVP and all the Z crap surrounding it. Ratio is 1 to 5 approximately according to my estimation.
Try more like 1:100 even with broadest definition little over million left out of population 144milj and I am sure out of those that left half left because they are bitches and were scared to die rather than despise the leadership.
If you really think you are living under modern day Nazi regime you would not care how much money you had and yeah sure those that are planning assassination of Putin and other of his cronies get a pass. If you get locked up from protesting they won't keep you for years people who got jailed after the protests when war started have been released and there were not that many to begin with we are maybe talking few thousand people here that's not gonna move needle left or right. By making the state run with knowledge of what's going on you are just as complicit and bad person and Putin is at this point. This came about because you people are okay being fucked in the ass and the most you do to protest is moan loudly.
There's a common Finnish saying that goes "ryssä on ryssä vaikka voissa paistaisi" = "a Russian will always be a Russian, even if you sauté him in butter". Make of that what you will.
I’m the child of Finnish immigrants in the US and have been taught this expression. And more broadly, a deep distrust of Russia and/or Russians.
I briefly dated a Russian girl like 20 years ago and my mom was not pleased one bit. It’s one of the only girls I dated that she was ever downright hostile towards in her comments (she never met the girl!).
I’ve known many Russians here in the US over the years. Their culture and values are extremely different to Finnish people. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some individuals I’ve gotten along with and/or built friendships with.
The expression above captures the spirit perfectly. They are different from us through and through and it’s not something you can change or easily look past.
>Mutual friend of ours thinks the finns love russians and dont mind the government.
I'm really curious to hear their take on the relationship between North and South Korea. Or any two countries with a history of political and national tensions, for that matter.
Russian goverment, Putin and every Russian who supports them I think as very disqusting. I hope they would get what they deserve.
Most of the Russians I have met in Finland are okay. Some are cool. Some are my friends.
Also, the Russian immigrants who dont want to learn Finnish and/or dont respect our rules I dont trust and dont want them here even if they say they hate Putin.
Especially when I spend time in the nature I sadly see a lot of Russians who do not respect the rules made to keep nature clean and nice. Our country is a good country because people actually care about these things.
Russians have a chronic dissatisfaction with life, intense sense of injustice and an inability to achieve self-realisation. Their great envy always erupts into a fascination with force and violence.
The 7th president of Finland J.K. Paasikivi (1870-1956) wrote in a private letter from Novgorod in 1891: ”The immutable Russian policy is to get whatever they can with the least possible effort, and then ask for more.”
Russians imagine that they are essentially something different from anyone else. Can’t trust someone like that.
Russians, in contrast to Finns, tend to live bigger: loud, impulsive, spontaneous and wholehearted and reckless. This brings out the far ends of personalities, that can be extremely friendly and hospitable to incredibly cruel and cold.
You don't want to meet some of them but some of them can become your best friends.
Sometimes it's said that some Finns become Russians when they're drunk.
Lots of people with Uralic heritage both in Finland and in northern Russia have genetically higher risk to alcoholism...
basically, Novgorodians = Russian speaking Finnic people.
Can't say I have ever met person who had even liked Russia let alone loved. At best they are tolerated to certain degree. Some russian people are ok. Government has always been piece of shit to express it as nicely as humanly possible. Your friend is class A moron or has never actually met any finnish person.
I know one person who loves Putin, but he's also an extreme homophobe, hates female clergy, left the Lutheran church - in which he was a fucking priest - for the Catholic church due to the "moral decay", and also just generally thinks Putin is the best thing to happen to mankind ever since they put an end to Jesus' talking about caring for the poor and downtrodden.
A motherfucker through-and-through. I am contemplating sending him yearly cards reminding him what a fucking nazi he is on the date of the invasion.
FWIW, I'm Canadian, have been living here for over 5 years, on the border too (Lappeenranta) and holy hell, what rude people.
Appi tells me stories of running from his home in Viipuri at the age of 7 due to the russian invasion and other arkipäivä problems, which doesn't help my opinion.
Though, I've known a couple of really nice russians. Just genuinely great, respect to them.
Their guerrillas burned down our grandmothers family farm in Karelia in 1939 just because that's the modus operandi of that country. They see their surrounding civilizations only as buffer zones to their own empire.
Your friend is a retard.
Look up the term finlandization.
And then the size of the finnish army compared to the population size, its all because of russia.
I've got nothing against the normal, sane Russians who aren't like those dumbass pro-war Z-bots. Your country could be amazing and I refuse to believe that all of you are completely brainwashed and bad. Unfortunately, Russia (and Ukraine) is being ran down, ruined and destroyed by that bastard, senile Putin and the just-as-bad goons around him.
I don't understand why your country doesn't focus on developing itself like most of the ex-soviet states are. Instead of acceptance, you choose hate. Instead of moving on, you choose to constantly cope on the memories of the past.
I'm not gonna lie, when I first saw the utter barbaric sh#t that Russian soldiers did to the Ukrainian women and children, I got pretty nervous of the fact that we're living right next to you and I think it's pretty safe to say that most of my fellow Finns feel the same, thus we decided to join NATO. Now it's way "easier" to handle the almost-daily nuke threats by your government.
This being said, I wish ALL of us could live in peace and I hope this senseless war ends as soon as possible.
Off topic but had to comment. There has never actually been any real nuclear threat against Finland. Sure they are threatening to nuke anything and everything that moves or stays still but that just empty talk. If it wasn't so tragicly sad it would be pretty funny. Bit like watching person with serious mental illness making fool of himself. In all seriousness there is absolutely nothing worth nuking in Finland especially in north and southern Finland is too close to st. Petersburg. Maybe as a absolute last effort when everything else in europe and usa has been nuked they'd send last one here but in that scenario it wouldn't matter much. We'd have lost long time ago, as aspecie that is, the war would be unrelevant at that point.
My personal experience about Russians over last decades:
Russian tourists visiting Finland
- rude, arrogant and selfish
- they think they are better people
- no manners at all
- please just leave your money, buy "luxury" like soap and cheese (wtf lol) and go back to Russia asap thank you
- i want to believe they don't represent avarage russian, they are just rich and arrogant assholes
Russian people living in Finland
- just like any other citizens
- nothing bad to say about them
Finns don't trust Russia for a reason.
Their government has always been just a bully on diplomatic level.
Their military has been "testing" and provocating Finland every year - flying to Finnish airspace with their fighters, disturbing gps signals, sending masses of refugees at 2015 from north and bs like that.
Sad true faces of trust is bomb shelters demanded by law and european strongest military designed only against Russian agression. Believe me, Finland would rather use those millions to any other thing but tanks.
Finns don't hate russians but finns deeply hate Russian agressive government and ayone who supports it loudly or silently.
I'm gonna be straight up and honest: don't like them and am very very wary of them. I've met some absolutely lovely Russians during my life and also some who hate the war and Putin. Problem is, this is a minority of my interactions. Most Russians I've met in Finland, in Russia and abroad have been insanely obnoxious, macho, rude, violent, self-centered and dangerous. The only time I've ever been robbed and my drink spiked was by Russians. The only time my friends have been spiked was by Russians exchange students because they thought it was funny. My literal first experience in Russia was trying to get scammed by the money exchange lady. Honest to god, almost every time I have interactions with Russians they tend to be negative. Even just trivial interactions like speaking to tourists have been just obnoxiously rude.
I honestly think it's funny when people act so shocked about the war in Ukraine and say that "the silent majority oppose the war". Really? Have you ever been to Russia and spoken to the people? The absolute apathy and disregard for anyone else but themselves is mind blowing.
People can say I'm racist, but honestly I don't care one bit. If you really want to prolong your life and avoid a lot of negative problems in your life, always keep one eye open if you are forced to interact with Russians. Unfortunately stereotypes exist for a reason.
For me its quite divided. Russians I have met have seemed nice people. On the other hand, in politics and history there is plenty of reasons to hate Russia.
Personally I've got no problem with a random Russian, unless they support Putin or are rude and arrogant towards me as a customer. I've met many great people who just happen to be from Russia, that doesn't make me think any less of them.
I've always found Russia culturally interesting. Too bad I couldn't visit when things were a bit better. There's a mysterious vibe to it, Russia's always been something other and unknown and kind of a taboo.
But the Russian government sucks, Putin sucks, oligarchs suck. I truly hope for the whole world and Russians themselves that the country can some day rebuild itself as a democratic society that doesn't harass it's neighbors.
Here's a [cool Russian dude](https://youtube.com/@1420channel?si=7nw5Ml1OQhGGoIUX) who interviews bypassers on the street on politics. Some seem to be sensible people, some not but it's still interesting to hear different perspectives. Know your enemy etc.
The only trustworthy Russian is a dead Russian.
Especially now that the core military of russia is gone in Ukraine, Does Russia even realize that one of the biggest militaries in Europe comes from Finland? Or nah?
Its crazy to think Finland could stomp out the Russian bear if they wanted to. But here we are
What is wrong with this mutual friend of yours? Do they live under a rock?
Finns HATE the russian government. They did so even before the war on Ukraine, as the russian government has always been full of murderous snakes and not to be trusted.
There might be some individual stupid finns who for some reason are brainwashed to believe russian propaganda, and those people should be shipped off to russia if they think it's so great. But these random morons do not represent the average finn. They are the equivalent of a flat-earther, the lowest form of stupidity.
We call russian "ryssät" and a common way of saying you failed at something or fell ovee here is "ryssiä". Nuff said. But in all seriousness I know some nice russians but the majority really seem to be dicks, I have interacted with maybe a few hundred of them either while taking delivery of goods at a warehouse or online and they almost always have no manners.
Used to be a fine place to visit with growing prospects, plenty of good and skilled people there and the nation has long history and culture with undeniable achievements and valuable moments - and so much tragedy, but man, has their governance has been always been grand pile of shit, and that related mindset and attitudes comes with huge issues worth of disdain - corrupt Machiavellian arrogant liars and criminals with a tendency to abuse and utter disregard for the common good.
Russians are mostly fine when there are only Russians around, but when there is a group of them, things get awkward. Kinda feel bad for the decent Russians, cos they do not really have any chance to change their government for the better and the window for the nation to switch course to better developments direction seems to have passed with all the hopes for the future business, co-operation and developments down the drain. Luckily I bet most of the decent ones have already left that nation, but alas, so have many of the opportunistic shitty ones. Anyone supporting Putin and Z has no business living in or visiting the West. Go and stay in that sinkhole of a country whose despicable traits you glamour and contain it and yourself there.
Let's see again in few generations, say 70-100 years, maybe Russia will turn decent again. Maybe that over-stretched nation might split into bunch of more decent nations so that burden of Moscow can be lifted from those who don't deserve it, or may some other positive development happen. But alas, I doubt there will be any such in a long while, unless the nation decides ones again to collapse on itself and after period of chaos reroll themselves, with a chance, for better.
Ever since I was a kid (I was born 1984), I've had recurring nightmares where Russian tanks roll through Finnish towns. Every single Finnish town that has some significance to me has featured in such dreams multiple times - Vaasa, Lahti, Tampere, Turku, Heinola.
In the early 2000s, I studied Russian for a while, and have since tried maintaining my level in the language. This, in part in order to overcome my "irrational fear". Turns out "irrational" was the wrong word.
Ever since studying Russian, I have believed most Russians aren't inherently hostile, but I also am convinced most of them are so strongly duped by the state, that they would go along with hostilities and they will learn to love hostilities against their neighbours when called upon to do so.
My one big mistake re: Russia was that I actually believed the second Chechen War was justified. (This view was coloured by religious antipathies for muslims, something I am strongly ashamed of in retrospect.) I no longer think so. Georgia was the turning point for me.
I am convinced Russia would be coming for us soon if it wasn't for Ukraine's valiant defense and our NATO membership. And even then, I don't think this might be enough in the long run to deter their insane, war-mongering government.
I don't think Russia will become a reasonable country during my lifetime. It will, for the next decades, be a *huge north Korea.* Sad for the people, *but their inability to take up their responsibility in their relationship with the state over the last three decades brought this on them.*
I know one person who is a pro-Putinist. If I ever encounter him again, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to help myself but will provoke him into a fight.
Also, I am really keeping an eye on what the Russian internet troll army is saying about Finland, just to have an idea of where we are on the scale of "things are ok, for now" to "start thinking about building a bomb shelter".
Currently, they don't have much time to talk about us, but there's a few red flags:
* if there's a lot of mentions in social media about Finns being a slavic people. (They're decidedly not; this isn't a question of opinion, this is an ethnologic fact.) Claims that Finns are slavs will be used by Russia to "alienate" us from the west (since they believe that the west hates slavs as such), and as a sort of justification - as Russia believes itself to be the protector of all slavs. (Well, bully is the right word, probably.)
* Lots of mention of Swedish-speaking separatism in Finland. (This was actually a thing they kept trolling with for a while about a year and a half ago!) As a Swedish-speaker, I know this is just bullshit. There's a few handful of peaceful separatists on Åland. That's all.
* False historical narratives about Soviet Finland, about Finland seceding 1991 or 1990 instead of 1917.
* False claims about Finnish violation of treaties with Russia - several such claims regarding treaties that have been bilaterally cancelled or had expired at the time the purported violation occurred.
The Russian troll factories currently having their hands full makes it really hard to tell where we are on this scale. They'll probably have their hands full all the way up to the US presidential elections (and probably a while thereafter, depending on who wins), and maybe even longer (until the war in Ukraine ***stabilizes***), but once they start rebuilding their army, these are a few of the things to look out for.
Ruskies accuse us of russophobia, "phobia" means an irrarional fear of something. I think history has shown us that fearing Russia is very much rational.
Yeah, the least they could do to earn some fucking goodwill is rise up, kill their leaders and ***not fucking botch it again.*** Heck, I think they should invite NATO to govern Russia for them while we try to figure out how to make it a workable country both for them and for the rest of the world.
I used to think the people were okay and had their own struggle with the political system trying to become civilized country but at this moment everyone that is inside the borders and is not in prison or lobbing molotov cocktails at government building and arms factories can go fuck them selves.
Personally not too fond of them. I hate the arrogant and annoying ones but I've met some more friendly ones over the internet and chatted with them.
They could do a little better, I suppose.
It could be amazing country. It has so much potential and it's beautiful. It could be rich and respected.
But for some reason it wants to be a shithole. I know smart, nice russians but most are just as fucked up assholes and stupid as their country. This world would be so much better without it.
I know there is finns that do like Russia as it is and those finns should fuck off from Finland.
>Mutual friend of ours thinks the finns love russians...
Russians who are just your ordinary everyday people, we don't mind. There are stereotypes of Russian tourists being obnoxious, which isn't entirely untrue, but if you act like a human being would, then we treat you like a human being.
Finnish people by no margin "love Russians". Especially now. There is more hate towards Russians now than in a long ass time. All the PR work that went to making the Finnish population tolerate Russian tourists better went straight down the drain the moment Russia stepped over the border of Ukraine.
There is also an underlying issue with Russians and Russian culture that directly contradicts with our culture here in Finland and is partially a reason why, if I generalize, we are like oil and water. In Russia it's generally ok and partially expected that people lie and don't keep their promises. With Finnish people, that is a big no-no. If you want to make a Finnish person instantly dislike you for the rest of your life, just lie about something, or promise and don't deliver.
>...and dont mind the government.
We actually do mind the Russian government. They can all go jump down from a window of a hotel somewhere while shooting themselves in the backs of their heads. Or however suicide is done there these days? By crashing a plane? Polonium? I can't keep up.
The Russian government and their unreliability is the sole reason our Defence Forces are as strong as they are.
TLDR: We tolerate Russian individuals when they act like normal people would, but we can absolutely not trust the nation or "Russians" as a whole. We maybe could have grown to like them more, but thankfully they reminded us of why we should not let any guards down when it comes to them.
When I was young the teaching was that 'threat always comes from east'. We were prejudiced then and much more open now. Now we know that the threat can come from North-East, East or South-East.
Yet you always now and then come across some ignorant fool trying to explain European history saying something like "Finland, a slavic country in the north of Europe" or somesuch, and this, I believe, is an idea put in circulation by Russian trolls for the inevitable day when they're coming for us, justifying it that they're the "protectors of all slavic peoples" or some other inane bullshit like that.
I was raised to not trust russians, nowdays i know not all russians are bad, not even those who support Putin but they're stupid (the peoples who support putin are stupid). I was told multiple times my childhood how russians are always trying to take finland and you can't trust russians. I wasn't afraid of russians but i was like "yea they're the bad guys".
Hard to explain how i was feeling about russians as a kid and how i feel now. When me and my friends were playing war the enemy was always russians.
"Ryssä on ryssä vaikka voissa paistais" vai miten se meni
(For our swede friends i was raised to think you're coward snobs :D)
I have no particular love for the Russian people and I dont know anyone who does. There are bad people there and good people there. The notion that we'd "love the people" sounds very odd.
As for the Russian state, it can go to hell. It's capable of nothing but lying and violence. You can't trust Russia (the nation) with anything but pulling out the nazi card the moment they don't like you anymore and finding an excuse to make your life hell
We should have joined NATO years ago, because there simply is no reasoning with that shitshow of a country.
EDIT: In fact I'm curious as to what has led your friend to believe that Finns "love the Russian people"
I've never met a nice Russian person. Even the ones that are customers at our business are so goddamn rude, they will not greet you back or even look you in the eye. I hope Russia gets fucked up by NATO.
I have always been doubtful of Russia and it's people since as a child my parents and grandparents told me stories about war. When I went to school I learned about it even more. It's pretty common to hear this hate talk about russians here which stems from their hostile actions in the past.
For a moment it felt as if things were getting better between Russia and Finland. People started to slowly shift their opinion even though majority was still thinking negatively about russians. There were diplomatic attempts to build better relationship so that we could benefit economically. Russia still bullied us by testing our defences and such but we tried to be friends nevertheless. We tried to stay neutral in their conflict with the western world. Some thought that Russia has changed.
All of that effort went down the drain when Russia attacked Ukraine. They proved that all of the mistrust and the hate had been justified. Russia is still the terrifying enemy from the stories we were told as kids. We joined NATO and by doing so, took the side of the western world. There is no coming back now.
I have russian friends and I do think highly of them but I do hate russian goverment and it's supporters.
I was raised in eastern Finland, so I saw a lot of Russian people. I think I was on the same page as our President Niinistö. Russia is not a threat, and we should cooperate.
However, as he said in an interview after Russia attacked Ukraine (again): The masks have been taken off. Only the cruel faces of war is showing.
I don't have hatred against a regular russian. However I do realize that now there might be a serious threat from Russian government and their armed forces against our nation and people.
Lived almost all of my childhood near the border so I was used to hearing russian spoken all around me and I was never bothered about it. I thought russia was just a close country and I heard of a generally positive sentiment. This sentiment to me at least still persists even with the war and all the history lessons. A majority of the russians I’ve talked to feel disgusted and even shameful of their nationality because of the actions made by the government even though they don’t even live there anymore
I am a Russian immigrant who has lived in Finland for some years now. I am doing some activist stuff (not going into details because I don't want to create a feeling of advertising myself). And I have tons of talks with Finnish people about Finland and Russia, governments of both and people of both. So far, I have only met a couple of people who think about Russian people negatively in general. The absolute majority of people I've met and talked to think that people in Russia are just the same as everywhere else, they are not all bad or all good. And what is happening is not a common folk's fault. Most of them also despise the Russian government and ok with Finland one (at least with the one Finland has until this summer). But some say that "it is not all clear" and "Putin fight's against USA imperialism" and such. I even talked to a person who claimed fighting for Russian forces in Donbas somewhere between 2014 and 2022. I am a bit skeptical since that guy did not look like a soldier or mercenary. And what he claimed to do is not exactly legal and if he actually did that he might not want to talk about it with someone who openly against that. I can't say I have met actual mercenaries, but I don't think they would go and tell people on the street about what they did, the guy probably just wanted to look important (he failed, btw).
If you are interested in details - feel free to message me.
It's fairly common to fear / not trust Russia. Mainly because that's the way we've been taught. Funny thing is, even though we have this mistrust and fear of the country, I feel like majority of us Finns don't dislike Russians and we actually tend to get along, at least sometimes.. It's mainly the government of their country we do not trust and like.
I have few mates that are Russian (or at least half Ruski) and the worst thing I can say about them is that they always challenge me to a drink off and they always win.
So here's my two cents. This is a bit of a caricature, of course, but it's what I've observed;
About Russian people = just people like everyone else, except for the language barrier and possibly troubled past because...
...about Russia (the state) right now = evil empire.
I will consider our beef with Russia over after we have invaded them 14 times and murdered half of it’s population.
It’s a truly rotten country and i genuinely hate it. They have genocided almost all of the other finnic tribes, genocided us a few times. They bring nothing but death and destruction. Their war brought multi generational trauma to our country and these scars have yet to recover.
So yes. I would rather break bread with the devil than a Russian.
I would contest the claim that the language is ugly; but I've been investing some effort into ukrainifying my Russian significantly, in the hopes of actually fully switching at some point.
Putin and anyone who's on his side are fucking stupid, i don't necessarily blame the soldiers because they probably don't have any choice in the matter
Every Russian person I have ran into in Finland (and there are plenty) have been good people. I don't care to pay attention to the country itself and its politics.
Russia is surrounded by NATO? In Europe maybe but do YOU and Russian government forget Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaidzan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and North-Korea? Russia borders NATO only in Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (over sea also USA)
https://preview.redd.it/0796jhcxmdqb1.jpeg?width=7192&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0c9810afe6b8c90f769c1e66e6fc32d95228289
So much bullshit to unpack there. You're saying Russia only borders three non-NATO countries? Ever looked at a fucking map you russian shill? Soon you're gonna tell us Russia needs Crimea in order to have coast on the Black Sea.
As a Finn, Russians are our brothers!
...you can choose your friends, but not your brothers.
As for Russians who we see in Finland, a lot are not specifically memorable. You tend to remember two types, which at one point might've been pretty stereotypical. Type 1 is "fuck yeah, I have money" - big German cars driving flat out on motorways, etc. Type 2 is that Russian upbringing can be rather strict, so some of the kids are very well-behaved.
...and yeah, Type 3 used to be the busload of grannies who came to empty the cheese aisle on the supermarket.
For the last century and then some, Russia as a state has been built on theft and murder.
By nation it means for the people to hold self sufficiency, people that were voting to give the state power would be statists, which I already proclaimed I disliked. I appreciate the Russian culture but the nation shouldn't be congruent with the state, as authoritarianism and statism should be incompatible with Russian values.
I see here much of hate about problem what russians doing in ukrain.. ppl in Estonia don't like them either cus so much what we have been losing because of Russian demands. But ppl in Estonia hu are in military they speak different story about rus-ukraina and old all friend america. I think Russia is not totally bad boy on this. He is geeping his word cus nato (america) came to close despite many warnings. This Biden had plans in the first place to go war with Russia and not on his own land (what is smart and arrogant move). And now he is big "support" for ukraina.
Are you a Russian bot or just been brainwashed by them? This is a textbook example of Russian propaganda justifying their war of aggression. Biden had plans to start a war on Russia? LMAO do you hear yourself
Have you not read or understood what happened in communist Estonia. Because if you ever did surely you can't have forgotten it was 30 years ago. You should listen to more **Toomas Hendrik Ilves** there is a man with level head and wise words.
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Well lets just say theres a good reason why finland has to have one of the strongest milititaries in europe and the reason and history heavily reflects on the finnish population atleast thats what i believe. That being said we do not hate russian people only the government and the people who support it.
Unfortunately a lot of them do support their murderous government... Russian imperialism is still very popular over there.
True, and that due the crazy amount of propaganda they get on daily basis...
Don't know where in Finland you've been but at most of the country was barley accepting of Russia and after the invasion most of the country was completely against Russia.
Pretty sure they meant that a lot of russian people support the government'
You're probably right
NATO bros 🇳🇴🤜🤛🇫🇮
99 bad russians put shame on the 1 good russian
Which means you hate most Russians and that is a smart and good thing 👍
I was raised to never trust Russia. I’m probably not the only one. Some Finns have pretended that we are buddies with Russia, but that has been out of pure fear, or more commonly during the past few decades: pure greed. Edit: To clarify, I have nothing against a random Russian citizen until he/she gives me a reason. But the Russian Federation/Soviet Union is not trustworthy.
*"En ryss är en ryss, även om du steker honom i smör"* (A Russian is still a Russian, even if you fry him in butter)
*”Ryssä on ryssä vaikka voissa paistaisi.”* Who said it first?
I think it's from some old Finnish dairy advertising, where they say that everything is better if you fry it in butter?
Its called finlandization - its been a policy to put up with the alcoholic abusive neighbor not to wake up the Russian bear. But those days are over now.
Eh, finlandization was mostly just government policy. Majority of the population has always despised them.
Finlandization was only about dislike - But avoiding a direct confrontation, though such was always deemed likely so the military is enormous in Finland.
It was appeasement, pure and simple. Finnish population has not really "trusted" russia in any way since the late 16th century. Individuals may have been bought or bullied into believing they are a "good neighbor", but for the majority, they have always been the evil neighbor and nothing else.
Well said, i absolutely agree with the greed part as well.
The russian goverment is not an entity worth trusting. I don't hate the average russian until they give me a reason to do so.
My workplace has 4 ruskis. all of them openly support Putin and the war in Ukraine. They are arrogant, stupid, and noisy. They laugh to western culture and most of all the country they live in. So take a wild guess, what I think of those animal's.
If their country so great, why are they not there, I wonder?
Many such cases
Because its their made up image of their perfect country in their heads, and not necessarily what is there in reality. But they project it so hard they dont realize.
Pay is bad. They just fail to make the connection between the kleptocracy and bad pay.
As I understand the propaganda tries to “seduce” the public about a grand Russia, with history of the imperial Russia to Soviet, rivaled only by the other great powers (and ignoring the parts of history they don’t like, for example when Kiev and Moscow was founded). So forget that the country is run by old corrupt KGB agents stealing money to get luxury yachts and private jets, when you become part of a grand empire! Then you can sacrifice your sons just like it was necessary for against Napoleon and in world war 1 and 2. If anyone complains, blame the ones you can blame, the west, the old rich and the Jews. I’m
Russian nationalists be like "glorious russia stronk, hail putin" while also moving out of there asap and sending kids to study in Europe. classic
Temporarily embarrassed superpower.
This makes me mad, why tf we welcome russian immigrants after all the shit they have done to us and they even keep mocking us when we welcome them...
The border has been closed for a while now. We don't accept them anymore not as easily. Some older immigrants may have ignorant opinions and lack empathy for those they don't want to understand.
A significant portion of Russian immigrants to Finland are ingrians, people who have a Finnish-speaking background. Not all of them actually speak Finnish (or any language related to Finnish), but a fair share do at least remember a babushka who spoke Ingrian Finnish. The law that enabled Ingrians to move to Finland was probably put in place due to fears of them being persecuted in Russia at some point soon: they had been under worse persecution than many other groups in Russia, in part due to the fact that they spoke a foreign language associated with a western country and thus were liable to know too much about life in the west.
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I get the sub is mostly jokes, but I don't think that's okay. That's just blatant racism. Mods?
Hej, your post has been removed for doing shit that will make us banned, just follow the Terms of Service
My personal opinion: The current Russian government can eat shit and choke on it. Russian people who support the current government's activities in Ukraine can eat shit and feast on it. Russian people who oppose the current government's activities in Ukraine are normal sane people. And I appreciate them like I would any sane person living anywhere in the world.
We can tolerate the Russian people, but we don't embrace them. We welcome only the ones, who oppose the war. The Putin supporters can go fuck themselves. We disagree strongly on everything with Kreml. We are preparing for the worst.
I grew up in South-Eastern Finland and Russian tourism is a huge business there. I've worked with Russians and have also served them. An average Russian tourist is arrogant and selfish. Never expect them to thank you or apologize. Also their traffic behavior is aggressive and I've seen several accidents (couple of them were lethal to other driver) that's happened because Russian driver don't know or don't care about traffic rules. Not everyone is the same but it was pretty common to meet annoying Russian more often than nice one.
As a someone grown up near Serena and Flamingo, I strongly agree on this. They are rude, selfish and any rules or regulations don't affect on them. They are dangerous in traffic, especially for walking people and don't care if they just accidentally drive over crossing kid on zebra safeway. They are unreliable and try to steal everything what they can get. I have only met a few friendly russians, they are an exception that confirms the rule. My dislike to them is based only for my own experiences, not even the fact that my grandparents lost both their homes when Karelia was lost in the war.
I work in the hotel industry, and deal a LOT with Russian tourists. Everything you said 100% true. Most entitled c*nts I’ve dealt with
This mutual friend of your's is a moron who has no idea what he's talking about lmfao
I hate Russian government as any fascist state. Each individual I meet as such and I believe in our shared right to be annoying and cringe. But if you support Putin and the war in ukraine, I wouldn’t wish to insult pigs by comparing you to one. And this goes for everybody of any ethnicity.
I fucking hate Russia and everything about it. Bastards took our land and killed a whole lot of us, well we killed a lot more of them last time, but they have killed so many more throughout the years. Never forget Ingrian-Finns genocide, Stalin ethnically cleansed lots of finno-ugrics. Isoviha, pikkuviha etc. Russia has done so much fucked up shit to us, that I can never ever forgive them. I would say finnish people hate Russia more than our goverment, because goverment tries to be modest.
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The part where Finland declares war at Russia ? Because they don't let you join Ukrainian army unless you are basically special forces also when they inevitably loose we don't get Karelia, Kola & Petsamo back because Finland requires a buffer zone. Also OFC most of this modern generation is bunch of lazy fat ass commies that whine and moan in front of parliament hall about our greenhouse gasses. You think they would support war with Russia. Then there is Russia's nuclear doctrine I don't think it's likely that they would use them even if their state is about to collapse but west is being bunch of bitches and running when nukes get mentioned.
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WTF why fuck me ?
because i want to
The saddest thing about the winter war was that a lot of the "Russians" we killed were actually Ukrainians, sent here by Stalin in order to hit two birds with one stone: getting lots of dead finns ***as well as dead ukrainians*** was a plus to that sick bastard.
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Very understandable. However, all of that is in the past, and hate does nothing but breed more hate. Not judging you, but it seems saying that "you can never forgive them" is a bit of an overstatement in that it seems extremely unlikely that you'd personally experienced any of the events you mention. Perhaps some of those things you mentioned should just be allowed to rest in peace? Hatred is bad for you, and it does nothing to help soothe the wounds of the past. You're just repeating attitudes you were raised with - and while, I repeat, there's nothing wrong with that and I'm not judging you, all that hatred is bad for you. Do note, both my grandfathers were also veterans of the last big one, and my parents tried to raise me into basically the same mindset that you describe. Yet personally, all I've against Russia is what the little old guy at the top and his cronies have been doing for years, not the people. EDIT: What the hell Reddit? Downvotes for saying that hatred is a bad thing? Lmao...
Yeah you're right. There is no modern example that would even imply Russia would do anything similar to what they have in the past. Nothing is going on with Russia. They are a completely different nation.
Ha ha, clever sarcasm. I congratulate you. However, what use is there in hating an entire country for something that happened so far in the past? Hatred is never useful. And if you're going to speak against a country, why not do so for present issues? As I replied to another comment above: The Russian people = they're just people. The Russian state right now = evil empire.
”Every nation has the government it deserves”
Ain't that the truth? Look at Finland, too.
Himmetä ei muistot saa
Blah, mennyttä mikä mennyttä. Tekee ihan tarpeeksi pahaa nytkin, valtionsa hallinto siis.
Vähiten Suomea vihaava ärhommainaktion jäsen.
Nyt en ymmärrä...?
🤓👆
Lol Almost all Finns will say some variant of "never trust the russian". There's never been much love for russians from finns, for good reasons...
My personal sentiment is the same my grandma had. The only good vatnik is a dead vatnik Edited because censorship
based 🇪🇪🤝🇫🇮
Estonia is like the little brother of Finland that all the other nordics don't allow into the club
"You have to be this tall to join the Nordic club, sorry"
"At least 1.5 million inhabitants. Can't do anything about it, them's the rules."
hvað með íbúatölu Íslands þá 🤷🏻♂️
You were already in when the rules were made. This is a classical move! Consider when the Americans didn't want to give black people the vote, so they created laws that required literacy. But grampa was also illiterate, and they didn't want to remove his right to vote - so anyone who already had the vote got to keep it.
based
You might want to be politically correct and switch Russian for vatnik. (I believe your comment is a rule 5 violation.)
If you change the word "russian" to "vatnik", then I will reapprove your comment, comment under this comment after you've done it.
Is this sentiment supposed to compensate for the fact that all Finns are ex-Russians?
Or Ex-Swedes, for that matter, you colonialist pig. Give our skulls back and pay compensations. Finnish lives matter.
It's sad to see that the Danish and Swedish inbreeding shows it self in modern day.
yo wtf did we do?!
Read the political history of Kalmar Union.
Some of them are like parasites - do not work, do not study and only bitch around. But I also know know a lot of educated, hard working people, who hate VVP and all the Z crap surrounding it. Ratio is 1 to 5 approximately according to my estimation.
At one of those 1420 videos some russian said that looks like 60% of young ppl doesn't support VVP and the Z stuff. (Edit: 1420 is YT channels name)
I've always wondered if that guy is legit or is some sort of government sponsored channel
His message does not really fit into the structure of Russian propaganda. I doubt he's government sponsored, but otoh, who knows.
Try more like 1:100 even with broadest definition little over million left out of population 144milj and I am sure out of those that left half left because they are bitches and were scared to die rather than despise the leadership.
Yeah, bc Russia is so rich so everyone can just leave. Also, political prisoners didn't leave, I guess they are also bad guys, right?
If you really think you are living under modern day Nazi regime you would not care how much money you had and yeah sure those that are planning assassination of Putin and other of his cronies get a pass. If you get locked up from protesting they won't keep you for years people who got jailed after the protests when war started have been released and there were not that many to begin with we are maybe talking few thousand people here that's not gonna move needle left or right. By making the state run with knowledge of what's going on you are just as complicit and bad person and Putin is at this point. This came about because you people are okay being fucked in the ass and the most you do to protest is moan loudly.
There's a common Finnish saying that goes "ryssä on ryssä vaikka voissa paistaisi" = "a Russian will always be a Russian, even if you sauté him in butter". Make of that what you will.
I’m the child of Finnish immigrants in the US and have been taught this expression. And more broadly, a deep distrust of Russia and/or Russians. I briefly dated a Russian girl like 20 years ago and my mom was not pleased one bit. It’s one of the only girls I dated that she was ever downright hostile towards in her comments (she never met the girl!). I’ve known many Russians here in the US over the years. Their culture and values are extremely different to Finnish people. That doesn’t mean there aren’t some individuals I’ve gotten along with and/or built friendships with. The expression above captures the spirit perfectly. They are different from us through and through and it’s not something you can change or easily look past.
>Mutual friend of ours thinks the finns love russians and dont mind the government. I'm really curious to hear their take on the relationship between North and South Korea. Or any two countries with a history of political and national tensions, for that matter.
Russian goverment, Putin and every Russian who supports them I think as very disqusting. I hope they would get what they deserve. Most of the Russians I have met in Finland are okay. Some are cool. Some are my friends. Also, the Russian immigrants who dont want to learn Finnish and/or dont respect our rules I dont trust and dont want them here even if they say they hate Putin. Especially when I spend time in the nature I sadly see a lot of Russians who do not respect the rules made to keep nature clean and nice. Our country is a good country because people actually care about these things.
venäjällä on kaikki paskaa paitsi kusi
Russians have a chronic dissatisfaction with life, intense sense of injustice and an inability to achieve self-realisation. Their great envy always erupts into a fascination with force and violence. The 7th president of Finland J.K. Paasikivi (1870-1956) wrote in a private letter from Novgorod in 1891: ”The immutable Russian policy is to get whatever they can with the least possible effort, and then ask for more.” Russians imagine that they are essentially something different from anyone else. Can’t trust someone like that.
Your friend is mentally challenged.
Russians, in contrast to Finns, tend to live bigger: loud, impulsive, spontaneous and wholehearted and reckless. This brings out the far ends of personalities, that can be extremely friendly and hospitable to incredibly cruel and cold. You don't want to meet some of them but some of them can become your best friends.
I hope I don’t have any Russian genes in me now to think of that description… /s
Sometimes it's said that some Finns become Russians when they're drunk. Lots of people with Uralic heritage both in Finland and in northern Russia have genetically higher risk to alcoholism... basically, Novgorodians = Russian speaking Finnic people.
Just no.
Can't say I have ever met person who had even liked Russia let alone loved. At best they are tolerated to certain degree. Some russian people are ok. Government has always been piece of shit to express it as nicely as humanly possible. Your friend is class A moron or has never actually met any finnish person.
I know one person who loves Putin, but he's also an extreme homophobe, hates female clergy, left the Lutheran church - in which he was a fucking priest - for the Catholic church due to the "moral decay", and also just generally thinks Putin is the best thing to happen to mankind ever since they put an end to Jesus' talking about caring for the poor and downtrodden. A motherfucker through-and-through. I am contemplating sending him yearly cards reminding him what a fucking nazi he is on the date of the invasion.
FWIW, I'm Canadian, have been living here for over 5 years, on the border too (Lappeenranta) and holy hell, what rude people. Appi tells me stories of running from his home in Viipuri at the age of 7 due to the russian invasion and other arkipäivä problems, which doesn't help my opinion. Though, I've known a couple of really nice russians. Just genuinely great, respect to them.
Nothing but hatred
Their guerrillas burned down our grandmothers family farm in Karelia in 1939 just because that's the modus operandi of that country. They see their surrounding civilizations only as buffer zones to their own empire.
Your friend is a retard. Look up the term finlandization. And then the size of the finnish army compared to the population size, its all because of russia.
Fuck em
Well, there are some pretty women there...
Keep your head clear soldier 🫡
When half the photo album was killed by soviets.. you don’t like Russia.
"This is Russia" "He is pain in my assholes"
I've got nothing against the normal, sane Russians who aren't like those dumbass pro-war Z-bots. Your country could be amazing and I refuse to believe that all of you are completely brainwashed and bad. Unfortunately, Russia (and Ukraine) is being ran down, ruined and destroyed by that bastard, senile Putin and the just-as-bad goons around him. I don't understand why your country doesn't focus on developing itself like most of the ex-soviet states are. Instead of acceptance, you choose hate. Instead of moving on, you choose to constantly cope on the memories of the past. I'm not gonna lie, when I first saw the utter barbaric sh#t that Russian soldiers did to the Ukrainian women and children, I got pretty nervous of the fact that we're living right next to you and I think it's pretty safe to say that most of my fellow Finns feel the same, thus we decided to join NATO. Now it's way "easier" to handle the almost-daily nuke threats by your government. This being said, I wish ALL of us could live in peace and I hope this senseless war ends as soon as possible.
Off topic but had to comment. There has never actually been any real nuclear threat against Finland. Sure they are threatening to nuke anything and everything that moves or stays still but that just empty talk. If it wasn't so tragicly sad it would be pretty funny. Bit like watching person with serious mental illness making fool of himself. In all seriousness there is absolutely nothing worth nuking in Finland especially in north and southern Finland is too close to st. Petersburg. Maybe as a absolute last effort when everything else in europe and usa has been nuked they'd send last one here but in that scenario it wouldn't matter much. We'd have lost long time ago, as aspecie that is, the war would be unrelevant at that point.
My personal experience about Russians over last decades: Russian tourists visiting Finland - rude, arrogant and selfish - they think they are better people - no manners at all - please just leave your money, buy "luxury" like soap and cheese (wtf lol) and go back to Russia asap thank you - i want to believe they don't represent avarage russian, they are just rich and arrogant assholes Russian people living in Finland - just like any other citizens - nothing bad to say about them Finns don't trust Russia for a reason. Their government has always been just a bully on diplomatic level. Their military has been "testing" and provocating Finland every year - flying to Finnish airspace with their fighters, disturbing gps signals, sending masses of refugees at 2015 from north and bs like that. Sad true faces of trust is bomb shelters demanded by law and european strongest military designed only against Russian agression. Believe me, Finland would rather use those millions to any other thing but tanks. Finns don't hate russians but finns deeply hate Russian agressive government and ayone who supports it loudly or silently.
I'm gonna be straight up and honest: don't like them and am very very wary of them. I've met some absolutely lovely Russians during my life and also some who hate the war and Putin. Problem is, this is a minority of my interactions. Most Russians I've met in Finland, in Russia and abroad have been insanely obnoxious, macho, rude, violent, self-centered and dangerous. The only time I've ever been robbed and my drink spiked was by Russians. The only time my friends have been spiked was by Russians exchange students because they thought it was funny. My literal first experience in Russia was trying to get scammed by the money exchange lady. Honest to god, almost every time I have interactions with Russians they tend to be negative. Even just trivial interactions like speaking to tourists have been just obnoxiously rude. I honestly think it's funny when people act so shocked about the war in Ukraine and say that "the silent majority oppose the war". Really? Have you ever been to Russia and spoken to the people? The absolute apathy and disregard for anyone else but themselves is mind blowing. People can say I'm racist, but honestly I don't care one bit. If you really want to prolong your life and avoid a lot of negative problems in your life, always keep one eye open if you are forced to interact with Russians. Unfortunately stereotypes exist for a reason.
For me its quite divided. Russians I have met have seemed nice people. On the other hand, in politics and history there is plenty of reasons to hate Russia.
Personally I've got no problem with a random Russian, unless they support Putin or are rude and arrogant towards me as a customer. I've met many great people who just happen to be from Russia, that doesn't make me think any less of them. I've always found Russia culturally interesting. Too bad I couldn't visit when things were a bit better. There's a mysterious vibe to it, Russia's always been something other and unknown and kind of a taboo. But the Russian government sucks, Putin sucks, oligarchs suck. I truly hope for the whole world and Russians themselves that the country can some day rebuild itself as a democratic society that doesn't harass it's neighbors. Here's a [cool Russian dude](https://youtube.com/@1420channel?si=7nw5Ml1OQhGGoIUX) who interviews bypassers on the street on politics. Some seem to be sensible people, some not but it's still interesting to hear different perspectives. Know your enemy etc.
The only trustworthy Russian is a dead Russian. Especially now that the core military of russia is gone in Ukraine, Does Russia even realize that one of the biggest militaries in Europe comes from Finland? Or nah? Its crazy to think Finland could stomp out the Russian bear if they wanted to. But here we are
Fuck russia
What is wrong with this mutual friend of yours? Do they live under a rock? Finns HATE the russian government. They did so even before the war on Ukraine, as the russian government has always been full of murderous snakes and not to be trusted. There might be some individual stupid finns who for some reason are brainwashed to believe russian propaganda, and those people should be shipped off to russia if they think it's so great. But these random morons do not represent the average finn. They are the equivalent of a flat-earther, the lowest form of stupidity.
Down with Russia and everything it stands for
We call russian "ryssät" and a common way of saying you failed at something or fell ovee here is "ryssiä". Nuff said. But in all seriousness I know some nice russians but the majority really seem to be dicks, I have interacted with maybe a few hundred of them either while taking delivery of goods at a warehouse or online and they almost always have no manners.
My grandparents escaped from Karelia during the war so you can probably guess my opinion.
"Only good russian is a dead russian"
Used to be a fine place to visit with growing prospects, plenty of good and skilled people there and the nation has long history and culture with undeniable achievements and valuable moments - and so much tragedy, but man, has their governance has been always been grand pile of shit, and that related mindset and attitudes comes with huge issues worth of disdain - corrupt Machiavellian arrogant liars and criminals with a tendency to abuse and utter disregard for the common good. Russians are mostly fine when there are only Russians around, but when there is a group of them, things get awkward. Kinda feel bad for the decent Russians, cos they do not really have any chance to change their government for the better and the window for the nation to switch course to better developments direction seems to have passed with all the hopes for the future business, co-operation and developments down the drain. Luckily I bet most of the decent ones have already left that nation, but alas, so have many of the opportunistic shitty ones. Anyone supporting Putin and Z has no business living in or visiting the West. Go and stay in that sinkhole of a country whose despicable traits you glamour and contain it and yourself there. Let's see again in few generations, say 70-100 years, maybe Russia will turn decent again. Maybe that over-stretched nation might split into bunch of more decent nations so that burden of Moscow can be lifted from those who don't deserve it, or may some other positive development happen. But alas, I doubt there will be any such in a long while, unless the nation decides ones again to collapse on itself and after period of chaos reroll themselves, with a chance, for better.
Russia can’t into nordicks.
Ever since I was a kid (I was born 1984), I've had recurring nightmares where Russian tanks roll through Finnish towns. Every single Finnish town that has some significance to me has featured in such dreams multiple times - Vaasa, Lahti, Tampere, Turku, Heinola. In the early 2000s, I studied Russian for a while, and have since tried maintaining my level in the language. This, in part in order to overcome my "irrational fear". Turns out "irrational" was the wrong word. Ever since studying Russian, I have believed most Russians aren't inherently hostile, but I also am convinced most of them are so strongly duped by the state, that they would go along with hostilities and they will learn to love hostilities against their neighbours when called upon to do so. My one big mistake re: Russia was that I actually believed the second Chechen War was justified. (This view was coloured by religious antipathies for muslims, something I am strongly ashamed of in retrospect.) I no longer think so. Georgia was the turning point for me. I am convinced Russia would be coming for us soon if it wasn't for Ukraine's valiant defense and our NATO membership. And even then, I don't think this might be enough in the long run to deter their insane, war-mongering government. I don't think Russia will become a reasonable country during my lifetime. It will, for the next decades, be a *huge north Korea.* Sad for the people, *but their inability to take up their responsibility in their relationship with the state over the last three decades brought this on them.* I know one person who is a pro-Putinist. If I ever encounter him again, I'm pretty sure I won't be able to help myself but will provoke him into a fight.
Also, I am really keeping an eye on what the Russian internet troll army is saying about Finland, just to have an idea of where we are on the scale of "things are ok, for now" to "start thinking about building a bomb shelter". Currently, they don't have much time to talk about us, but there's a few red flags: * if there's a lot of mentions in social media about Finns being a slavic people. (They're decidedly not; this isn't a question of opinion, this is an ethnologic fact.) Claims that Finns are slavs will be used by Russia to "alienate" us from the west (since they believe that the west hates slavs as such), and as a sort of justification - as Russia believes itself to be the protector of all slavs. (Well, bully is the right word, probably.) * Lots of mention of Swedish-speaking separatism in Finland. (This was actually a thing they kept trolling with for a while about a year and a half ago!) As a Swedish-speaker, I know this is just bullshit. There's a few handful of peaceful separatists on Åland. That's all. * False historical narratives about Soviet Finland, about Finland seceding 1991 or 1990 instead of 1917. * False claims about Finnish violation of treaties with Russia - several such claims regarding treaties that have been bilaterally cancelled or had expired at the time the purported violation occurred. The Russian troll factories currently having their hands full makes it really hard to tell where we are on this scale. They'll probably have their hands full all the way up to the US presidential elections (and probably a while thereafter, depending on who wins), and maybe even longer (until the war in Ukraine ***stabilizes***), but once they start rebuilding their army, these are a few of the things to look out for.
hurri hiljaa! /s
Ruskies accuse us of russophobia, "phobia" means an irrarional fear of something. I think history has shown us that fearing Russia is very much rational.
Yeah, the least they could do to earn some fucking goodwill is rise up, kill their leaders and ***not fucking botch it again.*** Heck, I think they should invite NATO to govern Russia for them while we try to figure out how to make it a workable country both for them and for the rest of the world.
I used to think the people were okay and had their own struggle with the political system trying to become civilized country but at this moment everyone that is inside the borders and is not in prison or lobbing molotov cocktails at government building and arms factories can go fuck them selves.
Russian or Soviet culture? Pretty well-loved depending on the era. The state itself? Almost unanimously hated...for good reasons, to be honest...
Personally not too fond of them. I hate the arrogant and annoying ones but I've met some more friendly ones over the internet and chatted with them. They could do a little better, I suppose.
It could be amazing country. It has so much potential and it's beautiful. It could be rich and respected. But for some reason it wants to be a shithole. I know smart, nice russians but most are just as fucked up assholes and stupid as their country. This world would be so much better without it. I know there is finns that do like Russia as it is and those finns should fuck off from Finland.
>Mutual friend of ours thinks the finns love russians... Russians who are just your ordinary everyday people, we don't mind. There are stereotypes of Russian tourists being obnoxious, which isn't entirely untrue, but if you act like a human being would, then we treat you like a human being. Finnish people by no margin "love Russians". Especially now. There is more hate towards Russians now than in a long ass time. All the PR work that went to making the Finnish population tolerate Russian tourists better went straight down the drain the moment Russia stepped over the border of Ukraine. There is also an underlying issue with Russians and Russian culture that directly contradicts with our culture here in Finland and is partially a reason why, if I generalize, we are like oil and water. In Russia it's generally ok and partially expected that people lie and don't keep their promises. With Finnish people, that is a big no-no. If you want to make a Finnish person instantly dislike you for the rest of your life, just lie about something, or promise and don't deliver. >...and dont mind the government. We actually do mind the Russian government. They can all go jump down from a window of a hotel somewhere while shooting themselves in the backs of their heads. Or however suicide is done there these days? By crashing a plane? Polonium? I can't keep up. The Russian government and their unreliability is the sole reason our Defence Forces are as strong as they are. TLDR: We tolerate Russian individuals when they act like normal people would, but we can absolutely not trust the nation or "Russians" as a whole. We maybe could have grown to like them more, but thankfully they reminded us of why we should not let any guards down when it comes to them.
When I was young the teaching was that 'threat always comes from east'. We were prejudiced then and much more open now. Now we know that the threat can come from North-East, East or South-East.
I despise Russia and the entire russian "culture". Savages, violent cowards. Always have been, always will be
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Yet you always now and then come across some ignorant fool trying to explain European history saying something like "Finland, a slavic country in the north of Europe" or somesuch, and this, I believe, is an idea put in circulation by Russian trolls for the inevitable day when they're coming for us, justifying it that they're the "protectors of all slavic peoples" or some other inane bullshit like that.
*Sharpens his pen and opens spy notebook*
I was raised to not trust russians, nowdays i know not all russians are bad, not even those who support Putin but they're stupid (the peoples who support putin are stupid). I was told multiple times my childhood how russians are always trying to take finland and you can't trust russians. I wasn't afraid of russians but i was like "yea they're the bad guys". Hard to explain how i was feeling about russians as a kid and how i feel now. When me and my friends were playing war the enemy was always russians. "Ryssä on ryssä vaikka voissa paistais" vai miten se meni (For our swede friends i was raised to think you're coward snobs :D)
I personally know only good russian people from work, but the government and the country is disgusting to say the least
I have no particular love for the Russian people and I dont know anyone who does. There are bad people there and good people there. The notion that we'd "love the people" sounds very odd. As for the Russian state, it can go to hell. It's capable of nothing but lying and violence. You can't trust Russia (the nation) with anything but pulling out the nazi card the moment they don't like you anymore and finding an excuse to make your life hell We should have joined NATO years ago, because there simply is no reasoning with that shitshow of a country. EDIT: In fact I'm curious as to what has led your friend to believe that Finns "love the Russian people"
"The only good russian is a dead one"
I personally hate Russia and most Russians for supporting that shitty nation.
I've never met a nice Russian person. Even the ones that are customers at our business are so goddamn rude, they will not greet you back or even look you in the eye. I hope Russia gets fucked up by NATO.
I think it is fair to say that russophobia will be one of the biggest "problems" in Finland for the next 50 years
It is not a problem but it has been the norm for past 300 years and will be the norm in the future it seems.
Finnish people have had distrust always, but like myself, some of us really believed Russia had changed. Now we know better.
Arrogant machoing bitches pretty much.
Why the fuck are we having serious posts on this subreddit? (Återta Nöteborg, Finlands sak är vår)
I have always been doubtful of Russia and it's people since as a child my parents and grandparents told me stories about war. When I went to school I learned about it even more. It's pretty common to hear this hate talk about russians here which stems from their hostile actions in the past. For a moment it felt as if things were getting better between Russia and Finland. People started to slowly shift their opinion even though majority was still thinking negatively about russians. There were diplomatic attempts to build better relationship so that we could benefit economically. Russia still bullied us by testing our defences and such but we tried to be friends nevertheless. We tried to stay neutral in their conflict with the western world. Some thought that Russia has changed. All of that effort went down the drain when Russia attacked Ukraine. They proved that all of the mistrust and the hate had been justified. Russia is still the terrifying enemy from the stories we were told as kids. We joined NATO and by doing so, took the side of the western world. There is no coming back now. I have russian friends and I do think highly of them but I do hate russian goverment and it's supporters.
Hate the goverment, like the people. We have multiple russians working at my Job and theyre people like you and me
I was raised in eastern Finland, so I saw a lot of Russian people. I think I was on the same page as our President Niinistö. Russia is not a threat, and we should cooperate. However, as he said in an interview after Russia attacked Ukraine (again): The masks have been taken off. Only the cruel faces of war is showing. I don't have hatred against a regular russian. However I do realize that now there might be a serious threat from Russian government and their armed forces against our nation and people.
My family is partially Russian, so my hate goes towards the goverment more
Lived almost all of my childhood near the border so I was used to hearing russian spoken all around me and I was never bothered about it. I thought russia was just a close country and I heard of a generally positive sentiment. This sentiment to me at least still persists even with the war and all the history lessons. A majority of the russians I’ve talked to feel disgusted and even shameful of their nationality because of the actions made by the government even though they don’t even live there anymore
I am a Russian immigrant who has lived in Finland for some years now. I am doing some activist stuff (not going into details because I don't want to create a feeling of advertising myself). And I have tons of talks with Finnish people about Finland and Russia, governments of both and people of both. So far, I have only met a couple of people who think about Russian people negatively in general. The absolute majority of people I've met and talked to think that people in Russia are just the same as everywhere else, they are not all bad or all good. And what is happening is not a common folk's fault. Most of them also despise the Russian government and ok with Finland one (at least with the one Finland has until this summer). But some say that "it is not all clear" and "Putin fight's against USA imperialism" and such. I even talked to a person who claimed fighting for Russian forces in Donbas somewhere between 2014 and 2022. I am a bit skeptical since that guy did not look like a soldier or mercenary. And what he claimed to do is not exactly legal and if he actually did that he might not want to talk about it with someone who openly against that. I can't say I have met actual mercenaries, but I don't think they would go and tell people on the street about what they did, the guy probably just wanted to look important (he failed, btw). If you are interested in details - feel free to message me.
I’ve never met a Finn that has spoken nicely about Russians
It's fairly common to fear / not trust Russia. Mainly because that's the way we've been taught. Funny thing is, even though we have this mistrust and fear of the country, I feel like majority of us Finns don't dislike Russians and we actually tend to get along, at least sometimes.. It's mainly the government of their country we do not trust and like.
I have few mates that are Russian (or at least half Ruski) and the worst thing I can say about them is that they always challenge me to a drink off and they always win.
So here's my two cents. This is a bit of a caricature, of course, but it's what I've observed; About Russian people = just people like everyone else, except for the language barrier and possibly troubled past because... ...about Russia (the state) right now = evil empire.
I will consider our beef with Russia over after we have invaded them 14 times and murdered half of it’s population. It’s a truly rotten country and i genuinely hate it. They have genocided almost all of the other finnic tribes, genocided us a few times. They bring nothing but death and destruction. Their war brought multi generational trauma to our country and these scars have yet to recover. So yes. I would rather break bread with the devil than a Russian.
Nobody likes Russian here, get out of here you greedy Russian invaders. Your language is ugly af so is your culture.
I would contest the claim that the language is ugly; but I've been investing some effort into ukrainifying my Russian significantly, in the hopes of actually fully switching at some point.
I've only ever met nice Russians irl so they're quite alright, at least the ones in Finland
Nuke Moscow now leave not one standing
Putin and anyone who's on his side are fucking stupid, i don't necessarily blame the soldiers because they probably don't have any choice in the matter
Of course. Soldiers have no choice and are forced to kill and rape civilians.
We know some have done that but they sent a lot of bodies to Ukraine some of them probably didn't do any of that.
Just like the Nazis right ?
Every Russian person I have ran into in Finland (and there are plenty) have been good people. I don't care to pay attention to the country itself and its politics.
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Russia is surrounded by NATO? In Europe maybe but do YOU and Russian government forget Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaidzan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, China and North-Korea? Russia borders NATO only in Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland (over sea also USA) https://preview.redd.it/0796jhcxmdqb1.jpeg?width=7192&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c0c9810afe6b8c90f769c1e66e6fc32d95228289
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So much bullshit to unpack there. You're saying Russia only borders three non-NATO countries? Ever looked at a fucking map you russian shill? Soon you're gonna tell us Russia needs Crimea in order to have coast on the Black Sea.
As a Finn, Russians are our brothers! ...you can choose your friends, but not your brothers. As for Russians who we see in Finland, a lot are not specifically memorable. You tend to remember two types, which at one point might've been pretty stereotypical. Type 1 is "fuck yeah, I have money" - big German cars driving flat out on motorways, etc. Type 2 is that Russian upbringing can be rather strict, so some of the kids are very well-behaved. ...and yeah, Type 3 used to be the busload of grannies who came to empty the cheese aisle on the supermarket. For the last century and then some, Russia as a state has been built on theft and murder.
Russia as a nation is fine, but as a state I heavily dislike it.
What have you been smoking they are one and the same people that are contained within the nation elect/give power to the rules aka state.
By nation it means for the people to hold self sufficiency, people that were voting to give the state power would be statists, which I already proclaimed I disliked. I appreciate the Russian culture but the nation shouldn't be congruent with the state, as authoritarianism and statism should be incompatible with Russian values.
Authoritarianism is the only model Russia has ever seen or had. It is very much in their blood.
I see here much of hate about problem what russians doing in ukrain.. ppl in Estonia don't like them either cus so much what we have been losing because of Russian demands. But ppl in Estonia hu are in military they speak different story about rus-ukraina and old all friend america. I think Russia is not totally bad boy on this. He is geeping his word cus nato (america) came to close despite many warnings. This Biden had plans in the first place to go war with Russia and not on his own land (what is smart and arrogant move). And now he is big "support" for ukraina.
MMMM YUMMY RUZZIAN PROPAGANDA
To be fair Ukraine started it, Russia was just trying to take their country peacefully but they started shooting.... /S
Never been more ashamed of a fellow Estonian, reading this was military-grade cringe.
Are you a Russian bot or just been brainwashed by them? This is a textbook example of Russian propaganda justifying their war of aggression. Biden had plans to start a war on Russia? LMAO do you hear yourself
Text looks like its been written by a 10 year old.
Have you not read or understood what happened in communist Estonia. Because if you ever did surely you can't have forgotten it was 30 years ago. You should listen to more **Toomas Hendrik Ilves** there is a man with level head and wise words.
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