Finlandization and the consolidation trouble

by Marcio Carvalho

“The World Peace Statue”, based in Helsinki, Finland, was a present
given by the city of Moscow to Finland, in 1990, two months after the
fall of the Berlin Wall, when the Soviet Union was coming to an end. It
was unveiled by Mayor Raimo as a monument of “peace and friendship”
between both nations. But the truth is that Finland was “obliged” to
accept this gift under the pressure of its powerful neighbor. This gift
is one of the examples that created the expression “Finlandization”, a
process by which one powerful country strongly influences the policies
of a smaller neighboring country.