my guest today is the president of finland, sauli niinisto. do finns now see russia as the enemy nextdoor? president sauli niinisto, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. mr president, finland hasjust made a major strategic shift. this country is now prepared to join nato. how big a deal is that? it is, but if you look back at the time before the cold war ended, that is the beginning of the 90s, we have all the time developed our interoperability with nato. our armament is, well, quite modern, us based, mostly. so, in a way, we have been very prepared all the time. but the changes, like you said, remarkable. it is remarkable because public opinion has moved so far so fast. just a year ago, polls suggested that 20 to 30% of firms liked the idea ofjoining nato, now it is 75 to 80%. is that based on a new level of fear of neighbouring russia? first of all, even though so many said a year ago that no reason to apply for membership of nato, they were not actually against nato, it was mo