Billed as the official hometown of Santa Claus, or joulupukki as he is known in Finland, the city of Rovaniemi offers every possible Santa-related experience: from visiting Santa's "office" in the Arctic Circle to riding reindeer sleighs. It even has its own store by the famous Finnish design house Marimekko.
However, this Christmas season, in addition to hundreds of thousands of tourists from around the world coming in search of Santa Claus, the snow-covered capital of Finnish Lapland is also becoming an increasingly popular destination for international military visitors.
In recent weeks, thousands of NATO troops have passed through Rovaniemi, which also has a military base, for exercises at nearby Rovajärvi, the largest military training ground in Western Europe, where they are preparing for a possible attack by Russia. Rovajärvi is about 89 kilometers from the Russian border.
Meanwhile, Rovaniemi is expected to soon become a key base for the Finnish Rapid Reaction Force (FLF), a Swedish-led NATO battle group intended to deter potential threats on the eastern border.
The increased military activity has not gone unnoticed among tourists in Rovaniemi.
Donna Coyle and her daughter Lyla, tourists from Scotland, were surprised when they heard military planes during a reindeer safari. "We didn't know anything about it," Donna said.
Hanna Schliker from Stuttgart, Germany, said it was impossible to escape the reality of war in Europe - even in Santa Claus' hometown.
"We were on a reindeer tour this morning and we saw military planes flying overhead," she said. "We felt the presence of reality here. There's no escaping it."
In Santa Park, "Santa's home cave," dug into a large hill, it's hard to ignore the fact that it also serves as a nuclear shelter for the city's residents.
"It's actually scary when you think about how close we actually are (to Russia). But on the other hand, Santa Park is a bunker... maybe that helps a little," Hana said.
Tensions between Russia and Western Europe are rising, with Vladimir Putin saying last week that he was “ready” for war if Europe started one, amid a stalemate in peace talks with Ukraine. In the event of a Russian invasion, the nearly 1.500-kilometer-long border between Finland and Russia – about 380 kilometers of which is in Lapland – is seen as one possible route of attack.
The Finnish military has warned that Russia, after the end of the war in Ukraine, will move additional troops to the border with Finland, where it is already strengthening its presence and infrastructure to become "an even more serious force."
Due to its geography and history with its eastern neighbor, Finland has long been preparing for a possible war with Russia. The constitution stipulates the obligation of every citizen to participate in the country's defense. However, Finland's accession to NATO in 2023 brought significant changes, including much broader international cooperation and the opening of the Alliance's new Northwest Command Center in Mikkeli, in the southeast of the country, in October.
Last week, while the Santa Claus Village amusement park was filled with excited children - and quite a few adults - coming under the snow to meet Santa Claus, nearby, in Rovajärvi, almost 1.000 soldiers from Sweden, Finland and the UK took part in the Lapland Steel 25 exercise. The exercise followed another, called “Northern Strike 225”, which brought together more than 2.000 Finnish and Polish soldiers on the same terrain.
As part of the Lapland Steel 25 exercise, Finnish conscripts and soldiers armed with rifles, along with Swedish soldiers, maneuvered tanks, cross-country skis and helicopters through pine forests and knee-deep snow, simulating combat.
“We are preparing for the worst,” said Swedish soldier and tank driver Alva Stormark, 19. “Because we know there is a war going on in Europe, and we are close to the Russians.”
She joined the Swedish military about a year and a half ago, which she says was a “difficult decision” given the geopolitical tensions, but she remains committed to her duty. “Defending Sweden is something I really want to do.”
Although Major Miko Kusisto, the chief of training at the Jaeger Brigade, the northernmost unit of the Finnish army, said that the Lapland Steel exercise did not follow a “specific scenario,” the exercise map showed a large red arrow coming from the northeast, in the direction of Russia.
He also noted that the Arctic Circle is “constantly shifting,” depending on the Earth’s movement, but that there is no doubt that Rovaniemi is Santa’s “real” home. “He spends most of the year right here, in Rovaniemi,” he said.
More than a quarter of Finland's border with Russia - which has been closed for two years due to rising tensions - is in Lapland, a sparsely populated region that is home to just three percent of the country's total population.
The commander of the Jaeger Brigade, Colonel Marko Kivela, said that due to its proximity to Russia and the Kola Peninsula - which has the largest concentration of nuclear weapons in the world - this region has exceptional strategic importance.
Russia, he said, is “changing its deployment of forces” on the Kola Peninsula and along the border with Finland, deploying new divisions and forming a new army corps. “That means they are building a command and control structure, as well as infrastructure, so that when the war in Ukraine is over, troops can be brought back to the Finnish border,” he said. “And then they could also equip the troops and change their deployment so that there is a much more serious Russian force on the other side of our border.”
The motto of the Jaeger Brigade, which specializes in Arctic training and land-based air defense, is pohjoinen pitää - “the north holds”.
Kivela described the current tensions as a “new Cold War.” “We live in a time when the war in Ukraine is ongoing, and when the Arctic is becoming more interesting as the ice melts and natural resources become more accessible,” he said.
“Russia is now building up its military structure in the Arctic - primarily to protect its strategic capabilities as a nuclear deterrent, but also to protect the economic resources that are opening up. So, in a way, this accumulation of bases is reminiscent of what happened during the Cold War and now they are doing more or less the same thing.”
As a woman, Finnish conscript Rebeka Brun (23) volunteered for military service. Although the long marches are exhausting - often carrying up to half her body weight with her equipment, rifle and backpack - she has no regrets about signing up, despite the growing threat of war. “I wouldn’t say I wouldn’t change a single day, because I would,” she says, “but I don’t regret joining the army.”
Although the escalating tensions on the border occasionally cross her mind, she feels prepared for a possible war. "We're well trained. So I'm not nervous."
“Someone has to do it,” says Jona Lahtelin (20), also a conscript standing next to Brun. “We’re mostly here of our own free will anyway, so it’s not a big step to actually join the army when wartime comes.”
Last week, representatives of the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian armed forces met in Rovaniemi to discuss plans for the establishment of a Finnish FLF, for which the city will serve as a base. The battle groups, said Brigadier General of the Swedish Army and commander of the 1st Division Mikael Karlen, will arrive across the Swedish border from Boden, in Norrbotten.
Finland's FLF, he said, will be "an important component of strengthening NATO's eastern flank." "It's a geographical area with very demanding terrain, few roads, almost no infrastructure, and in winter the climate is marked by extremely cold temperatures."
International military exercises, he said, are aimed at “showing our capability and deterrence.” He added: “Violence with Russia should be avoided by demonstrating our capability.”
In a joint statement issued on December 1, the prime ministers of Finland and Sweden, Peteri Orpo and Ulf Kristerson, said they planned to “deepen bilateral cooperation,” including in the areas of defense and civil preparedness.
Prepared by: A. Š.
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