NATO's eastern flank prepares to fend off Russia — with or without America

Source: Business Insider

A guard patrols the newly built fence along the Russia-Finland border in Finland's North Karelia region. Alessandro RAMPAZZO / AFPNORTH KARELIA, Finland — Bears, wolves and moose still cross the frontier freely, but for the border guards patrolling this stretch of fields and forest, this is where NATO ends. A line of wooden poles and painted markers cuts through the light green grass, separating Finland from Russia along the alliance's longest border with Moscow — 1,343 kilometers (835 miles) of increasingly militarized territory.