Thus Der Spiegel today. “In an interview, Finnish prime minister Alexander Stubb discusses relations with neighboring Russia and his country’s flirtation with NATO,” explains the newspaper. “He says Finland will make a decision ‘without asking for permission’.” He starts by pointing out that his country shares a border of one-thousand and three-hundred kilometers with Russia. But one of Vladimir Putin’s confidants has explicitly warned Finland of membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It could trigger World War III, he said point blank. Timing is a bit awkward, of course. According to Stubb, his country could have joined NATO in 1995, when it joined the European Union. Unfortunately, the interview does not go much farther than this, but one can well imagine Putin’s machinations in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova… Thinking of World War III, it could have as many triggers. But Finland’s flirtation with NATO clearly shows which way Eastern Europe is going once again. Once a cordon sanitaire, always a cordon sanitaire.