Ilta-Sanomat is among the papers which speculate that an announcement is forthcoming on Friday that Turkey will ratify Finland's application for Nato membership.
President Sauli Niinistö is to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on Friday afternoon.
IS reports that Niinistö will start his day's programme at 11:30am by laying a wreath at the Ataturk mausoleum, followed by a ceremonial reception, one-on-one talks with Erdogan, a joint press conference and finally Niinistö's own press conference.
Erdogan is expected to announce his approval of Finland's Nato membership at some point during the day.
According to Ilta-Sanomat, once Erdogan has made his announcement, Turkey is thought to be able to ratify Finland's membership application in less than a week. The paper writes that it now strongly seems that Turkey will ratify the application before the Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for 14 May.
The ratification of Sweden's membership, it seems however, will continue to face a delay.
Ilta-Sanomat also notes a report by the Hungarian media outlet HVG according to which the largest governing parties in Hungary, Fidesz and KDNP, have agreed to hold a decisive vote on Nato expansion during a parliamentary session on 31 March.
The Tampere-based daily Aamulehti writes that an interesting question is why Turkey seems to have decided to move Finland's membership application forward right now.
As the Vilnius summit approaches, pressure on Turkey from the rest of Nato has intensified. By ratifying Finland's membership, Turkey can at least alleviate claims that it is playing into Russia's hands.
The journey to this point has been long and has required patience, Aamulehti points out.
"When Finland and Sweden submitted their Nato application on 18 May 2022, very few people guessed that more than nine months later, the matter would still be unresolved," the Tampere-based daily writes.
Russia disappointed
Iltalehti takes up a Tass news agency report from Moscow saying that Russia is deeply disappointed by the desire of Finland and Sweden to join the western military alliance.
According to Tass, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov commented on the subject on Thursday, saying that there has never been a threat from either side, and their wish to join Nato can only be viewed with the greatest disappointment.
"We have repeatedly said that Russia does not pose a threat to these countries in any way, because we do not have any bad blood with these countries, and these countries have never expressed an intention to become anti-Russian. They did not pose a threat to us, and, accordingly, there was no threat from us to them. Therefore, we can only express regret here," Peskov told the media, when asked about the Kremlin's reaction to Turkey's announced support for Finland's Nato membership bid.
Marin tops another poll
Finnish voters view Prime Minister Sanna Marin (SDP) by far as the most successful political party leader in the country, according to an Uutissuomalainen news group poll published on Friday.
Marin, who chairs the Social Democratic Party, was named by 26 percent of respondents as the most successful leader, up from 21 percent in a similar survey in October.
Li Andersson of the Left Alliance and Riikka Purra of the opposition Finns Party tied for second place, with both being ranked as most successful by nine percent of voters polled.
Both Andersson and Purra overtook opposition NCP chair Petteri Orpo. In October, Orpo was rated by 12 percent of voters as the second most successful leader, but in this poll was ranked top by eight percent.
Commenting on the poll, Heikki Paloheimo, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Tampere, noted that Marin seems to enjoy a lot of support not only from members of her own Social Democratic Party, but also from the supporters of the Left Alliance and the Greens.
Tampere University Communication Studies Professor Pekka Isotalus pointed out that Marin is viewed positively among all age and professional groups, income and education categories, and in all residential areas.
"There has been talk that Marin is especially popular with young women, but she seems to be popular with men of all age groups as well," he told the Uutissuomalainen news group.
The results of the poll are based on the responses of around 1,000 voters surveyed by the pollester Tietoykkönen at the end of February. The margin of error is 3.1 percentage points in each direction.
Snow, rain, cold, warm
Iltalehti reports that the weather in Finland will continue to be unsettled this coming week, as a low pressure front spreads over northern Europe.
Finland is likely to see more precipitation than average and temperatures are deviating from what is normal for the time of year.
The paper relays a posting by Foreca Meteorologist Joonas Koskela saying that the situation is quite similar to the week that started on 13 March. It is a little colder than average in northern Finland, and milder than average in the south and east.
According to Koskela, once again the country can expect both snow and rain this coming week, with the mix coming down even southern parts of the country.
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