Sea border | President Stubb: Could be a hybrid operation or a pure accident

Republic president Alexander Stubb says that Finland is investigating Russia’s possible intentions to move its sea border and there is no cause for concern in the situation. However, it may be a hybrid operation.

According to Stubb, the last information is that there would have been a misjudgment in the situation.

“Current information hasn’t changed terribly from this morning. So we’re still figuring out exactly what it’s all about. And now the latest we’ve got from it [on]that there has been some kind of misjudgment,” Stubb told HS on Wednesday afternoon.

“I don’t think there is any cause for concern in this regard. It can either be a hybrid operation or it can be a pure accident. That’s why you shouldn’t react too strongly to these,” said Stubb.

What does some kind of error estimate mean?

“[Se] means that no such presentation has been made. But even that can be a hybrid operation in itself. So let’s put some sort of claim in the media and then withdraw it.”

In Stubb’s opinion, the situation is an indication of the resilience of Finnish society.

“So first the authorities found out what it was about. And then our ambassador has had a discussion in Moscow [– –] with a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who had no information about this incident, who would then also indicate that perhaps this was not carefully planned.”

According to Stubb, Finland had not received any kind of official notification from Russia on the matter on Wednesday afternoon.

Russian The draft published by the Ministry of Defense regarding the transfer of the sea border justified the matter by saying that, in its opinion, the sea charts of 1985 were not completely accurate and did not correspond to the “current geographical situation”.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied on Wednesday that there was anything political about Russia’s intention to move its sea border in the Baltic Sea.

At the same time, he stated that the political situation has changed significantly since 1985, when the current sea borders were approved.

“You can see how tensions and the level of confrontation have increased, especially in the Baltic region. This requires our agencies to take appropriate measures to ensure our safety,” Peskov said.

Stubb commented on this by stating, among other things, that so far there is no indication that the situation is about any so-called border requirement.

Sea border the documents related to the relocation project were removed from the Russian government’s website on Wednesday. What this is related to cannot be known, says Stubb.

“But precisely because of that, calmly, calmly, calmly. You don’t rush or hustle in these.”

According to Stubb, the situation does not “in any way” affect the assessment of Finland’s security situation.

“Or [tämä on] but an indication once again that we have a good tolerance for various potential hybrid operations.”

“Now that we also have the European elections coming up, we can well think that there will be different means of influencing information and other things. Let’s maintain media literacy.”

According to Stubb, it is not possible to know whether what happened is related in some way to the European elections or to another current issue, such as the adoption of the border law in Finland.

“But one could think that when the border law is brought to the parliament, that this has been a hybrid measure related to it. We can’t know at this stage, but we don’t have any reason to worry.”

Stubbs says that he has been in contact with the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister since Wednesday morning about the situation. We have also been in contact with Lithuania since the beginning.

On Wednesday, Stubb attended the EU ambassador’s lunch at the Belgian embassy, ​​where he informed about Finland’s measures in the case.

According to Stubb, there has been no need to be in contact with the parties representing the military alliance NATO.