Harassment | Information from STT: Matti Saarelainen had to leave the leadership of the hybrid center due to sexual harassment

May on the last day of 2019, the European Competence Center for Combating Hybrid Threats (Hybridcoe) announced a change of leadership, which did not seem very special in public.

In the bulletin the director of the competence center announced Matti Saarelainen to transfer to the protection police, from which he had gone on leave years before.

“I feel that the task of establishing the competence center is now complete and it is time to move on,” Saarelainen stated.

Chairman of the Board of the Expertise Center Jori Arvonen in turn, thanked Saarelais in the press release for the well-run management of the center’s initial phase.

For Helsingin Sanomat in giving In the 60th anniversary interview in September 2019, Saarelainen told about the reasons for leaving in the same vein:

“However, I am clearly a project person and I like to work in the background,” Saarelainen said.

Saarelainen however, there is more to the departure from the European Competence Center for Combating Hybrid Threats.

According to STT’s information, the reason behind the departure was Saarelainen’s behavior towards staff members. In early 2019, he behaved in a way that STT’s sources characterized as inappropriate and sexual harassment.

STT has heard about the events before Saarelainen’s departure from several different sources. Jori Arvonen confirms to STT that sexual harassment was behind Saarelainen’s departure.

According to Arvonen, there were two victims.

“I am extremely sorry for these victims. This was a very difficult experience for them. It’s about very fine top professionals dedicated to our common safety and to their cause, so this is a really sad thing,” says Arvonen.

The background to Saarelainen’s departure has not been made public before. STT has obtained information about Saarelainen’s behavior and the events related to his departure from several different people who were aware of the competence center’s operations and its personnel. They speak anonymously because of their job duties. Matti Saarelainen has not responded to STT’s contact request on the subject.

of STT according to the information, at least one other harassment situation occurred in the beginning of 2019 in connection with an evening party of the center’s personnel, and the target of Saarelainen’s harassment was a female employee of the center.

Arvonen does not reveal the harassment situations in more detail, citing the protection of the victims’ privacy. He does not say the gender of the victims or other details, but confirms that the incidents targeted the center’s employees.

The center’s personnel informed Arvonen about Saarelainen’s behavior in the beginning of 2019. According to him, the matter began to be handled in a manner familiar to the state administration, and the process included, among other things, occupational health care and occupational safety.

“Its [prosessin] as a result, Matti Saarelainen had to leave the center,” says Arvonen.

Arvonen himself also discussed the events with Saarelainen.

He says that he proposed to the board of the competence center that Saarelainen be moved aside from the position of director, and the board accepted the proposal.

According to STT’s information, Saarelainen had also appeared intoxicated at an event where he represented the European Competence Center for Combating Hybrid Threats. Arvonen says that a situation related to intoxication also came up with Saarelainen, but the main focus of the conversation was on cases of harassment.

In public The European center of competence for combating hybrid threats has been viewed positively by the Finnish government since the founding document of the center was signed and the center began its operations in 2017.

The Competence Center is an independent organization headquartered in Finland. As its name suggests, the center focuses on researching hybrid influence and helping its member states understand societal vulnerabilities. The need to understand various hybrid threats began to arise in Europe, especially after Russia occupied the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

Currently, 32 countries have joined the center. The center says that it also cooperates strongly with the European Union and the defense alliance NATO.

The center itself is not a Finnish state actor, but its connections to the state administration can be called at least strong. For example, Jori Arvonen, who has been the chairman of the board since the beginning of the center, was the undersecretary of state responsible for EU affairs in the State Council’s office. At the end of 2021, he moved to the service of communications agency Miltton.

The center has also had several employees who have made a career in the state administration.

Such an employee was also Matti Saarelainen, who moved from the protection police to the State Council to become a project manager for the establishment of a new center. When the center was about to start its operations, the board appointed Saarelainen as its first director.

Saarelainen after leaving in the fall of 2019, the director of the Center for Foreign Affairs was elected as the director of the Foreign Policy Institute Teija Tiilikainen.

Saarelainen, on the other hand, returned to the service of his former employer’s protection police. Upon his return, his job title changed from head of department to special expert, and he served in that position until he retired last fall.

Saarelainen’s previous activities have been discussed in public even after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Saarelainen is suspected of having contributed to the fact that Vladimir Putin belonged to a close circle Gennady Timchenko got Finnish citizenship at the end of the 1990s.

Evening newspaper told in early 2022 that the protection police was already interested in Timchenko at the time of the citizenship application, but they were not asked for a statement on the citizenship issue. Since then, Timchenko, who has amassed a fortune of billions, is on the EU’s sanctions list due to Russia’s war of aggression.

Read more: IL: Matti Saarelainen, who served as the director of the Foreigners’ Office and had a Supo background, organized Timchenko’s citizenship

Saarelainen has publicly commented that there was nothing surprising in the processing of Timchenko’s citizenship.

He retired in 2022 after the protection police decided to do a new security clearance on him.

Wake up another question is why the background of the change of director of the center, which is significant for Finland in terms of foreign policy, has not been made public before.

One reason can be found in legislation. The position of the European competence center for combating hybrid threats is regulated by a separate by law, and the position of the center is very independent. Although Finland finances its operations, the center is not subject to, for example, publicity legislation or all other laws that bind the state administration.

Another reason might be in the control of publicity. The center’s executive board has representation from each of its member countries. Along with Arvonen, the hybrid ambassador of Finland currently sits on the board.

Arvonen says that the background to Saarelainen’s departure was not made public in order to protect the victims of harassment.

“I have the impression that the way the matter was handled was appreciated by both the participating countries and the center’s staff,” says Arvonen.

It is unclear, how the political leadership at the time of the events was informed about the reasons for the change of director of the competence center. Arvonen says more than two and a half years after the events, he does not remember whether he forwarded information about the matter to, for example, the foreign minister or the prime minister.

STT did not reach the former prime minister Juha Sipilää (center). Foreign Minister at the time of the events Timo Soini (ps), on the other hand, says that the reason for Saarelainen’s departure did not come to his attention in time.

During Soini’s ministerial tenure, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had several cases of harassment, which is why the ministry updated its own guidelines for handling harassment situations.

“Hybridcoe is an independent unit, and it has acted as it sees fit,” Soini tells STT.