Concerned by Russia’s expansionism but also more confident after becoming an official member of the Alliance, Finland is rallying to strengthen its national self-defense beyond its traditional military capabilities.

Weapons training in the Nordic country has exploded in recent months while shooting ranges have begun to fill up with more and more showing interest.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to echo in the heads of many in Finland. The Vantaa Reserve Association, which has a number of shooting ranges, has more than doubled its membership in the past two years and now has over 2,100 members.

“They have something in the back of their head that this is the skill they need to learn now,” association president Antti Kettunen said. “I think the wind has changed, it’s blowing from the east now.”

Earlier this year, the coalition government announced plans to open more than 300 new shooting clubs — a big jump from the 670 operating today.

Authorities encourage citizens to take an interest in national defense.

“Interest in national defense is traditionally very high in Finland, and especially these days with Russian aggression in Ukraine, the interest has increased even more,” MP Jukka Kopra, who chairs the defense committee, told the AP earlier in December. of Finland.

The National Defense Training Association says it has hosted a total of 120,000 training days this year, more than double the number three years ago.

The national reservist union, which is made up of about 90 percent military reservists but also some hobbyists, has grown by more than two-thirds to more than 50,000 members since the invasion of Ukraine.

Finland is no stranger to tensions with Russia, and a large part of the country’s national identity was forged fighting its eastern neighbor – it won independence from the Russian Empire in 1917 and then fended off a large Soviet force with its tiny, poorly equipped army her.