Back to the Finland Station

By: Elisabeth Braw

Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell

In early June, Finns learned that a civilian had put in a bid for a property near a Finnish Defense Force test-shooting range in the town of Taipalsaari, located some 20 kilometers from the Russian border. At first, nothing seemed unusual about this; civilians often live near military shooting ranges. But there was one detail that triggered concern in the Finnish military and government: the prospective buyer was Russian. Plenty of ordinary Russians do, of course, buy summer homes in Finland. But some of these properties don’t resemble holiday retreats: they’re decaying cottages or empty plots of land coincidentally located near strategic military areas such as ammunitions depots, radar stations, and key electricity supply lines.©2015 Foreign Affairs (P)2015 Audible, Inc.