Russia|One of Russia’s most popular television channels aired a program over the weekend in which it was claimed that Finland was planning an attack on Russia. The host of the program makes a baseless claim that President Alexander Stubb threatened Russia with destruction.
The summary is made by artificial intelligence and checked by a human.
Ren TV, which publishes Russian propaganda, aired a program on Saturday, September 7, in which it asks “Is Finland begging for denazification?”
In it, the host of the program, Igor Prokopenko, claims that the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, would have said that “Russia in its current form must be destroyed.” Later, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also commented on Stubb’s “anti-Russian statements”.
According to the program, the NATO military exercises organized in Finland are for the US attack against Russia.
It also accuses Finns of extreme right-wing views and dreaming of restoring Eastern Karelia.
As proof of the spread of nationalist views in Finland, the program shows Kazakh videos in Russian.
“‘Russia in its present form must be destroyed in order to preserve peace in Europe’. Such a threat was presented by the Finnish president a few days ago Alexander Stubb.”
I saw a Russian host Igor Prokopenko start over ten minutes long Concerning Finland part of the program that aired on the popular Russian television channel Ren TV last Saturday.
Vojennaja Taina i.e., in the program called “military secrets”, Prokopenko claims that Finland is preparing to attack Russia with the support of the United States.
Ren TV is one of Russia’s largest television channels. In 2023, it was the fifth most popular television channel in Russia, says a Russian newspaper Kommersant.
Vojennaja Taina – program shows a video clip from the interview session of the President of the Republic, which was shown Above September 1st. In it, Stubb says in Finnish that Ukraine should be allowed to use weapons on Russian soil as well, as long as they are not aimed at civilian targets.
The superimposed Russian dubbing claims Stubb as saying: “I asked the United States to announce that the use of all types of weapons on Russian territory is permitted.”
Also, the quote from Stubb presented by host Prokopenko at the beginning is apparently related to the comments made during question time. However, Stubb has not said has said what the program claims.
Tuesday The official X account of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia published a spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marija Zakharova Commenting on Stubbs and Finland the update. According to it, the ministry has “noticed new anti-Russian sentiments, the statements of the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb”.
Stubby from the comments, the program switches to showing pictures of NATO military exercises in Finland. According to the program, the exercises of the military alliance are just an excuse under which the US army can establish bases in Finland, from which it can later attack Russia together with the Finns.
“The NATO leadership plans to use Finnish military airports for a possible air strike on Russian cities,” says Prokopenko, referring to sources “close to [Ukrainan presidentti Volodymyr] Zelensky office”.
The program shows on maps the distance from Finnish military bases to Vyborg and St. Petersburg. However, the program concludes that the target of the first strike would most likely be Petroskoi, the capital of the Republic of Karelia, as the estimated flight time there from the Uti air base is 35 minutes, according to Russian military experts.
Ren TV reporters calculated how far the Finnish military bases are from Vyborg and St. Petersburg. Screenshot from Ren TV’s program.
The program The part about Finland is presented under the title “Is Finland begging for denazification?”. The text appears in the upper left corner of the screen throughout the broadcast.
Russia has justified its invasion of Ukraine in similar terms, claiming to be fighting Nazism.
“When did formerly neutral, peaceful Finland start to become Nazi Ukraine?” Prokopenko asks.
According to the presenter, Finland dreams of returning Karelia. As proof, the program presents the message service of the quote from X from a Finn, an ethno-nationalist who belongs to basic Finns From Henri Hautamäkiwhich worked Interior of Finland as chairman in 2020-2022.
Hautamäki is introduced to Russian viewers as a “Finnish politician”. Hautamäki has worked in the board of the Basic Finns Youth and in the board of the party’s Varsinais-Suomen district. He has also been a candidate for basic Finns in the municipal elections in Turku in 2017 and 2021, but has not been elected.
Finland’s leading politicians are called “descendants and ideological followers of the Finnish Nazis” in the program. The program also claims that far-right views are popular among today’s young Finns. As an example it mentions of the far-right, US-based Active Club Finland group.
The program fails to mention that this “popular” group has, for example, only about 560 followers on X and about 2,000 on Telegram.
From somewhere significant for a reason part of the Finnish part of the program concerns Kazakhstan. Vojennaja Taina –according to the creators of the program, the videos of Kazakh Telegram channels presenting nationalistic views in Russian would be “very popular” in Finland.
In the videos shown in the program, individual Kazakh bloggers express their support for Ukraine and the Ukrainian army.
Finland is not mentioned a word in these videos, but Ren TV claims that “this kind of information teaching of the Kazakhs, Ukrainians and American Nazis is already bearing fruit in Finland”.
When recounting the history of Finland, the program repeats all the clichés that are very popular in today’s Russia: in 1809, Russia liberated Finland from Sweden and gave it numerous rights and freedoms, in 1917 it “gifted” Finland independence, and despite that, during the Second World War, the “Finnish Nazis” participated to the siege of Leningrad.
“Examples of limitless Finnish Russophobia can be listed endlessly, but this alone is enough to understand that modern Finland is more and more reminiscent of Bandera’s Ukraine”, the program’s creators conclude the part about Finland.
Fought for a free Ukraine Stepan Bandera was a Ukrainian nationalist who collaborated with Nazi Germany.
Two and a half hours Vojennaja Taina program is shown on the Ren TV channel every Saturday. The program consists of several different sections that repeat the main narratives of the Kremlin’s propaganda: Ukrainians are called Nazis and Western countries are accused of wanting to start World War III against Russia.
In December 2022 EU suspended along with several other Russian channels, Ren TV’s broadcasting license in its territory. The reason, it stated, was that “Russia has engaged in a systematic and international campaign of media manipulation and distortion of facts to strengthen its strategy to destabilize its neighboring countries and the EU and its member states.”
Foreign policy senior researcher at the institute Jussi Lassila assessed earlier on Thursday to HS that Russia has clearly increased disinformation about Finland. Lassila thought that the reason was that Russia was trying to break the unity of the West, especially in supporting Ukraine.
“In Russia, it is hoped that a discussion would begin in Finland about the fact that supporting Ukraine, and especially supporting that Ukraine be allowed to use long-range weapons on Russian territory, could lead to a dangerous escalation. In this, Russia has partially succeeded.”
Lassila did not see any risk of escalation. In his opinion, it is quite clear that Russia does not seek a military confrontation with NATO.
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