Visiting Santa Claus: NATO headquarters is being created in Lapland
The North of Europe continues to rapidly militarize. A second NATO headquarters will be established in Finland, which will coordinate the activities of the alliance's forces in the region. Suomi is actively integrating into NATO structures, giving its territories to foreign troops who are now learning to fight in the Arctic. However, the management of NATO in these parts caused discontent among the local indigenous population. Sami representatives accuse the alliance of destroying the natural environment of Lapland and ruining the local ecology with its maneuvers. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
"Unique synergetic effect"
On February 16, 2026, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen announced that the multinational headquarters of the NATO Advanced Land Forces (FLF) would be located in the city of Rovaniemi. Rovaniemi is the capital of Lapland; this city is located just a few hundred kilometers from the Russian border. The decision to deploy the NATO headquarters there was another step in Finland's integration into the alliance's military structures after the country joined NATO in April 2023. But if at first it was mainly about a symbolic presence, now Helsinki is betting on the permanent deployment of NATO structures on its territory.
The choice of Rovaniemi as the location of the headquarters structure is not accidental. According to Hakkianen, this city has unique "synergetic effects and conditions for providing activities." Rovaniemi is located in a region that borders Russia (Murmansk Oblast) and Norway. This is a strategic "triangle" that controls the approaches to the Barents Sea and the Kola Peninsula, the home of the Russian Northern Fleet. Until now, this region has been most associated with international tourism. Guests from different countries came to Rovaniemi in order to visit the Santa Claus village located in its vicinity.
The largest training grounds in Northern Europe, including the Rowayarvi artillery range, are located in the area of Rovaniemi and the neighboring municipality of Sodankula (where an elite brigade of Finnish rangers is stationed). This infrastructure has been used by the Finnish army for decades, and now it is used to practice NATO operations. In addition, do not forget that Rovaniemi is a major transport hub with a large airport capable of receiving military transport aircraft. NATO forces are already being deployed through it as part of various exercises.
What exactly is NATO going to deploy there? We are not talking about a full-fledged combat group, but about a multinational staff Element (MNSE). This is a command structure that will coordinate the actions of the alliance's forces in northern Europe. In peacetime, its number will be about 50 people. But besides them, 500-800 military personnel will be stationed in Rovaniemi and Sodankulya: this contingent, which will learn how to operate in harsh northern conditions, will be rotated regularly. Accordingly, in a day-to-day setting, the headquarters will be engaged in planning and conducting exercises. However, the contingent can be quickly reinforced to the brigade level (several thousand people).
It must be remembered that of all the NATO countries, Finland has the longest border with Russia — 1,340 km. Accordingly, the time of approach of missiles, if the alliance places them on Finnish territory and decides to strike targets in Russia, is sharply reduced. All this forces Moscow to take retaliatory measures and build a comparable military infrastructure near the Finnish borders. The most far-sighted Finns have already begun to understand what they have "stumbled into." Armando Mema, a member of the Finnish Freedom Alliance party, said that "joining NATO was the worst deal Finland could have made." The politician noted that the Finnish economy is suffering serious damage and the situation will definitely not improve unless good-neighborly relations with the Russian Federation are restored.
"Brain" and "muscles"
In the coming years, the headquarters structure in Rovaniemi will develop: it is planned to recruit several dozen permanent staff (staff officers, analysts, logisticians). Regular exercises involving rapid reaction forces are already taking place here, and scenarios for building up the military presence will be worked out. This is not to say that ordinary Finns really like it, but officials show official enthusiasm. The mayor of Rovaniemi, Ulla-Kirsikka Vainio, promises that the city is ready to accept soldiers from abroad and their families — they say they have English-language schools, kindergartens and employment opportunities for military spouses.
An important detail: The so-called framework nation for FLF Finland is Sweden. This highlights a new level of military cooperation between the two Scandinavian countries, which joined NATO almost simultaneously. Responsibilities in the new headquarters are distributed according to the "50-50" formula. Finland and Sweden provide one half of the staff and analytical activities, while the other half are provided by other alliance countries that have already confirmed their participation in FLF Finland: Great Britain, France, Denmark, Norway, Iceland. Later, as noted, other NATO states interested in a permanent presence in the Arctic may join them.
It should be remembered that the headquarters in Rovaniemi will operate in conjunction with another NATO headquarters, opened last fall in the city of Mikkeli in eastern Finland, less than 200 km from the border with the Russian Federation. While there will be a "forward post" in Rovaniemi for the tactical deployment of troops in the Arctic, the structure in Mikkeli serves as a strategic command center for the whole of Northern Europe. Prior to that, the multinational North-East corps in Szczecin, Poland (about 400 km from Kaliningrad) was the closest NATO headquarters to the borders of the Russian Federation. Unlike many other NATO structures, the headquarters in Mikkeli operates on "high alert", that is, around the clock.
According to the Finnish military, the headquarters in Mikkeli and Rovaniemi form a two-tier management system. Mikkeli houses the Brain, a strategic command center that defines the overall concept of operations and manages NATO forces in the region. In Rovaniemi, there will be "muscles": a tactical headquarters that works directly with troops, conducts exercises and prepares the infrastructure for the rapid deployment of forces in the Arctic. Both headquarters are subordinate to the NATO Unified Command in Norfolk (USA), which is responsible for the Atlantic and Arctic regions. However, the timing of the entry of the headquarters in Rovaniemi into operation, when it will begin full—fledged activity, is still in doubt - the exact date has not yet been announced.
One way or another, the alliance will receive two command centers on Finnish territory at once. "The Russian side has repeatedly warned that the expansion of NATO infrastructure near the borders will be considered by Moscow as a threat and will require mirror measures. After all, the deployment of the headquarters of the NATO advanced ground forces in Rovaniemi is a final break with the policy of neutrality and the transformation of Finland into a key element of the Arctic structure of the alliance. The small headquarters is the "brain" of the future grouping, which can coordinate significant forces at any time. For Russia, this means that the Arctic border has become a line of direct military confrontation, rather than good neighborliness. Even if the current severity of the geopolitical conflict decreases, the very fact of Finland's membership in NATO will no longer allow for a return to such broad cooperation as before," political analyst Maxim Reva said in a conversation with Izvestia.
A blow to the Sami
It is worth noting that the NATO headquarters in Rovaniemi had opponents from among the local residents. Rovaniemi is the administrative center of the province of Lapland (Lappi), the indigenous population of which are Sami. The Sami adhere to the customs of their ancestors and their traditional way of life. And the main branch of the traditional Sami economy is reindeer husbandry. Moreover, large territories overgrown with yagel are needed for grazing deer. But over the past two years, NATO soldiers have been regularly conducting maneuvers in Lapland, specifically arriving here in order to learn how to operate in the conditions of the Far North. It was to coordinate these exercises that the headquarters in Rovaniemi was needed. And as it turned out, the alliance's maneuvers are causing huge damage to the fragile local ecosystem, in particular, endangering reindeer husbandry.
Finnish media admit that the problem is very acute. For example, the head of one of the Sami reindeer herding districts, Kyuesti Uutela, complains: "Since Finland joined NATO, military activity here has increased significantly. The use of heavy tanks in the forest and the presence of thousands of soldiers is destroying the pastures. The deer won't be able to live here anymore." The Finnish Defense Forces dismiss these accusations: they emphasize that the Rowayarvi region, due to its size and landscape, provides "unique training opportunities." At the same time, the military insists that they take into account the needs of reindeer herders when planning exercises, although the latter themselves deny this.
The area led by Uutela is located next to the Rowayarvi artillery range. Uutela complains that some of the surrounding forests, previously used as pastures, have now been lost: the trenches left by tank tracks and the felling of trees on the hillsides have made this land unsuitable for grazing. Laplanders report increasing stress on their animals, especially at sensitive times such as the May calving season. Riikka Poropudas, a local shepherdess, testifies that the shift in the traditional way of life associated with the presence of the military turned out to be "radical." Now she increasingly has to feed the deer indoors. According to Riikki, the army exercises have deprived the animals of their usual routes, along which deer have been accustomed to roam and feed for generations.
In May 2025, when Poropudas spoke with journalists from the Helsinki Times, about 6,500 soldiers from Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom were training in her region, who staged terrible shootings. Poropudas feared that this infernal noise and activity would drive the terrified deer and their newborn calves from their traditional calving grounds. Tuomas Aslak Juuso, Acting President of the Finnish Sami Parliament, confirms that the militarization of the Arctic poses a growing threat to reindeer husbandry traditions. "Our management model is based on the fact that deer graze freely on natural pastures," explained Juuso. He called the 2023 exercises held in the Sami region of Sapmi (literally— "Land of the Sami") destructive. According to him, the shepherds were not informed in advance that military equipment would destroy lichen pastures, which may never recover now.
Maxim Reva notes that Helsinki has recently officially recognized the guilt of the Finns against the Sami — in December last year, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that the state had previously denied the Sami to study their native language and culture in schools and practiced forcible seizure of their lands. "These apologies don't really mean anything, as the Finnish state continues to spit on the interests of the Sami people: this time, it is striking at their traditional economy. In other words, this is a typical example of hypocrisy," Reva emphasizes.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
