Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker.

My guest today is a president with an approval rating most of his fellow heads of state would die for.

Sauli Ninister was elected into office in Finland in 2012, re-elected with a thumping majority in 2018.

And his rise from small town police chief to no-nonsense

finance minister and then to president has turned him into something of a national institution,

a status enhanced by his story of miraculous survival when he was caught up in the horrifying tsunami

in Thailand in 2004. He survived and

saved his son by shining up an electricity pole. Right now, his and Finland's challenge is

major geopolitical turbulence. Since Vladimir Putin launched Russia's all-out assault on Ukraine in February,

Finland has undergone a significant strategic shift. Decades of pragmatic cooperation with

neighboring Russia, after a bitter conflict during World War II, have, it seems, come to an end.

Finland has decided to join NATO, it's arming Ukraine and building

a border fence to keep Russians out. Finns seem to back this new policy, yet their history tells

them Russia is a dangerous enemy. So are Finns ready for potential Russian retaliation? Well, President

Nynister joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you. Mr. President, Finland has just 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, let's say, time before, after Cold War ended, that's beginning of 90s.

We have all the time developed our interoperability with NATO.

Our armament is, well, quite modern, USA-based, mostly.

So in a way, we have been very prepared all the time.

But the change is, like you said, remarkable. It's remarkable because public opinion

has moved so far, so fast. Just a year ago, polls suggested that 20 to 30 percent of Finns liked the

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