Via UK media:
- President of Finland and his wife abruptly flew out off the Baltic island chain
- Strategic Åland islands are a demilitarised and vulnerable region of Finland
- Hours before Putin had issued veiled threat about retaking Russian lands
- Russian navy had been spotted in the Baltic near the undefended islands
- The Baltic has been very tense since Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO
And:
- innish President Sauli Niinistö and wife Jenni Haukio… had been due to have dinner with Sweden’s King Carl Gustav XVI and Queen Silvia but that was cancelled.
- Sweden’s royal pair stayed on and attended the opening of an evening concert but left part-way through
And:
- Local news sites reported Russian frigates had begun a drill in the Baltic Sea off the enclave of Kaliningrad. Nato are also conducting exercises in the region.
There is not much margin for error in this ongoing tension.
