On April 4, Finland officially became the 31st member of the NATO military alliance. The 830-mile border between Finland and Russia is now by far the longest border between any NATO country and Russia, which otherwise borders only Norway, Latvia, Estonia and short stretches of Poland and Lithuania where they encircle the Russian territory of Kaliningrad.
In the context of the not-so-cold war between the U.S., NATO and Russia, any of these borders is a potentially dangerous flashpoint that could trigger a new crisis, or even a world war. But a key difference is that the Finnish border comes within about 100 miles of Severomorsk, where the Russian Navy's northern fleet and 13 of its 23 nuclear-armed submarines are based. This could well be where World War III will begin, if it hasn't already started in Ukraine.
