Editorial Russia is standing in a pit and continuing to dig

Editorial|Editorial

Russian In recent years, the embassy on Tehtaankatu was known as a place where Finnish politicians visited to show the flexibility of their spines. Fortunately, those times are far away, but even then, Russian diplomats have been known as effective actors, as Russia has sent talented people to a neighboring country that it considers important.

However, everything changed overnight on February 24th. Since then, there have been protests in front of the embassy on behalf of Ukraine and against Russia. A self-made street sign has been brought to the site, which will be used to turn Tehtaankatu into Zelenskyinkatu. The idea came from Washington, where the square in front of the Russian embassy was named Boris Nemtsov Square in Russia after an opposition politician murdered in 2015. There has been little response to the protests in the delegation by staring at the slit in the curtains.

Ambassador Pavel Kuznetsov has remained out of the public domain. Tehtaankatu has not been involved in the distribution of somepropaganda by the Russian Foreign Ministry, unlike many other embassies. Perhaps Russian diplomats understand that there is nothing wrong with throwing a loan.

According to the security police, the activities of Russian diplomats and intelligence officers have become more difficult when the Finns have turned their backs on them. Finland’s direction is now towards NATO.

Russian for diplomacy, it is a bad failure. Did Finland completely forget about the strategic calculations, or did the Russians believe that the war would be fought so quickly that Finland would not have time and then no longer dare to do anything? The Russians did not seem to be very afraid of Finland’s NATO option.

One way or another, Finland’s and Sweden’s membership of NATO is a huge loss for Russia. It is expected to lead to malicious retaliation. Signs from the campaign are already visible. Pedaling the foot from annoyance is understandable, but not wise. The Russians should realize that they forced Finland to choose their side, even though Finland was very comfortable on its fence. So do most of the people.

Looking at history, we notice that the majority of Finns have consistently supported the best possible relations with their eastern neighbor. It was seen during the period of autonomy: Finland remained loyal even when other nations revolted. It was not until Russia began to eat up Finland’s position that opinions changed. Even then, the majority for independence was not found until the revolution took Russia into a power vacuum. After independence, the state leadership rejected Mannerheim’s dreams of attacking the Bolsheviks and St. Petersburg. Nazism was never very popular in Finland either, although we will probably hear more in the near future.

After the wars, J. K. Paasikivi from Old Finland led Finland to the line of the new Eastern policy, which even lasted the break-up of the Soviet Union. Even as an EU country, Finland has been so eager to maintain relations that it has sometimes demanded to turn a blind eye to unpleasant facts. There was no desire to see anything political in the gas pipelines or nuclear power plants. Until the dismantling of the masks, a good relationship with the Russian leadership was a political resource for the President of Finland.

Finns The NATO position has changed in the face of coercion, the basic attitude towards Russia and especially the Russians may not be there. In the future, Finns would like to maintain as functional relations with their neighboring country as possible, now only from a new starting point as a member of NATO.

Russia can accept new realities or expel Finns with retaliation even further. A wise policy would require the Russians to admit their mistakes. That’s why they’re probably just digging deeper into the pit where they stand.

The editorials are HS’s statements on a topical issue. The writings are prepared by HS’s editorial staff and reflect the magazine principle.