Finland has closed the last crossing on its long Russian border, prompting the Kremlin to condemn an “absolutely redundant measure”.
The northern crossing at Raja-Jooseppi closed for two weeks at 14:00 (12:00 GMT) on Wednesday, after Helsinki accused Russia of channelling asylum seekers towards Finland.
Finland says it has become the target of a Russian “hybrid operation”.
Some 900 asylum seekers have crossed the border this month.
The influx is dramatically higher than the previous number of barely one a day and Finland’s border guard says before August 2023 Russian authorities barred foreign citizens from travelling to the area without the necessary visas.
Unlikely. When the soviet union collapsed the man in charge of their nuclear program got a powerful role and put a lot of money into the nuclear program. While we cannot know how much went to corruption, odds are enough remained to keep many ICBMs working. Plus there are by treaty inspections of what they have - while the results of those are classified, people who have access to those reports are acting as if they think the ICBMs still work.
Until recently, there were inspections.
Here’s a statement from June 2023 when the inspections stopped.
https://www.state.gov/russian-noncompliance-with-and-invalid-suspension-of-the-new-start-treaty/
Likely if any prior inspection showed only corn and potato in warhead, that would of been the mother of all global clapbacks the first time he threatened nukes.
So it is safe to have belief that at least one of their ICBMs is in working order. Even if that singular device is loaded onto a sub in the Arctic Circle.
Not really relevant, but where do we draw the line of first time he threatened nukes? As a Finn, feels like Russia has been making threats about their nukes almost monthly for the last thirty years.