Baltic sabotage drama, Stubb's snub, and Ronaldo in Lapland

Hello Insiders!

We made it to the end of the year, week 52, and the software tells me I’ve written 80,000 words in the newsletters so far!

Let’s add some more words to that total this week with a major international incident right here on our doorstep (or more accurately, on our shoreline); Finland’s politicians graded; a presidential PR misstep on Christmas Eve, and believe it or not we’re about to embark on another Eurovision Song Contest season with the potential Finnish entries getting a sneak preview online.

But let’s start with some drama which unfolded in the Baltic Sea on Christmas Day and the days afterwards:

🇨🇰 Sabotage. A vessel registered in the Cook Islands has been towed to port near Porvoo this afternoon, after a dramatic raid by Finnish authorities. The Eagle S tanker was boarded and seized by Finnish police and Border Guard in the Gulf of Finland after the Estlink 2 electricity connection between Finland and Estonia was severed on Christmas Day.

Finnish police are investigating the incident as aggravated vandalism, and as a result of this (and other recent incidents), NATO says it will beef up its presence in the Baltic Sea.

The Eagle S left the Russian port of Ust-Luga, and was headed to Port Said in Egypt with a reportedly mostly Indian and Georgian crew on board. On Christmas Day and Boxing Day, open-source map data shows the Eagle S doing some manoeuvres in the Baltic Sea near the Finnish coast, and over the Estlink 2 electricity cable, which was later found to be badly damaged.

The tanker is suspected of being part of Russia’s so-called ‘dark fleet’ which could number up to 1400 vessels with poor maintenance and insurance, and opaque ownership, which help the Kremlin evade sanctions. 

⚓️ On Friday President Stubb gave a press conference and shed more light on the incident. Stubb told reporters in English “this shows that Finnish authorities are very capable in dealing with these types of situation. By way of example, a year ago the ship in question was able to leave the waters and leave the Baltic Sea before we were able to react. About a month ago the ship in question was stopped and not brought into national waters, and in this particular case we were able to do it.”

“Our message is quite clear: we’ve got the situation under control, and we have to continue work together vigilantly to make sure our critical infrastructure is not damaged by outsiders. It’s too soon to draw conclusions yet why this happened. We know who did it,” said Stubb.

Reaction. There’s a lot of reaction and analysis to this incident, from Finns almost universally praising the swift and robust actions of the police and Border Guard. Here’s a snapshot of some of the other highlights:

EU. The EU’s new foreign minister Kaja Kallas said in a statement: “In response to these incidents, we are strengthening efforts to protect undersea cables, including enhanced information exchange, new detection technologies, as well as in undersea repair capabilities, and international cooperation. We remain committed to ensuring the resilience and security of our critical infrastructure. At present, there is no risk to the security of electricity supply in the region.”

Commission. Meanwhile Finland’s EU Commissioner Henna Virkkunen said “the EU is ready to act.”

MEP. And MEP Mika Aaltola (NCP) formerly the head of the Finnish Institute for International Affairs FIIA thinks Russia has been testing the waters (no pun intended). “Perhaps that is why Russia is acting proactively in the Baltic Sea, that is, they want to continue to show that they are a significant player. They are testing reactions and seeing how far the West is willing to go. That is precisely why it is worth hitting them in the throat.” Aaltola also notes that in Trump’s orbit, Europe is seen as weak on defence and security but Finland’s robust actions to detain the Eagle S will show a tougher image.

Inside the headlines

💣 Bomb alert. Police were called to Helsinki Airport around 4am on Friday morning to respond to a bomb alert. It turned out to be a false alarm involving a “heavily intoxicated” passenger. “A foreign man reported in English near the departure gate that he was carrying a bomb under duress. The situation was quickly responded to and airport security officers evacuated and isolated the area,” Detective Inspector Asko Sartanen said in a statement.

🎄 Stubb’s snub. Finnish President Alexander Stubb made a PR misstep over Christmas, when he was a no-show at the annual Hursti Foundation Christmas Eve dinner. The event is an important tradition in the capital, and brings together a small army of volunteers to serve a Christmas meal free of charge to people on the poverty line, or with other socio-economic problems, or mental health challenges or loneliness.

The Hursti Foundation said that their invitation to President Stubb was met with an automated receipt response and then silence. Stubb’s office says it was a technical glitch and that he’s since been in touch with Heikki Hursti to apologise, and promised to attend next Christmas.

⚕️ Medical care. A new survey for Helsingin Sanomat finds that slightly more than half of Finns trust they’ll receive good care if they end up in hospital. Meanwhile some 37% of people said they did not trust they would receive good care, while 11% didn’t have an answer to give.

🎧 Eurovision. The annual Eurovision Song Contest doesn’t take place until next May (in Basel, Switzerland) but the Finnish domestic competition known as UMK is cranking into action already. The hosts of this year’s UMK selection show have released a spoiler-free teaser video with their reactions to the seven artists competing to represent Finland in Basel. The actual reveal will be happening on 8 January, with a song getting released every day after that. The UMK live event takes place in early February with the public, and expert juries, getting to have their say.

🎵 More music. Finnish artists have been named among the best classical musicians of the year by the New York Times. On the list is Lappeenranta accordion player Janne Valkeajoki whose album ‘Rameau: Pièces de Clavecin’ is a recording of work originally composed for the harpsichord in the 18th century.

Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen's recording of Kaija Saariaho's ‘Adriana Mater’ with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra also made the the New York Times’ list.

📈 Unemployment. Finland’s unemployment rate is still creeping higher. The latest numbers from Statistics Finland this week show the unemployment rate at 9% in November, that’s up slightly from 8.9% the year before (and up from 8.7% in October). Akava’s Chief Economist Pasi Sorjonen wrote on X that he “didn’t expect to see such a bad number.”

🌊 Helsinki. The Guardian newspaper has been singing the praises of Helsinki’s redeveloped waterfront area, both for local residents and for tourists. The article quotes Deputy Mayor Anni Sinnemäki (Green) saying “the idea is to improve access to the water so that the sea will feel closer than before.” [Note: Helsinki’s marketing agency paid for the journalist’s visit, so perhaps it’s inevitable they wrote nice things…]

Insider politics

Grades. How would you grade the current crop of government ministers at an end-of-year evaluation? That’s a question posed by Ilta-Sanomat this week and the results are perhaps not too surprising. The newspaper asked people to grade the ministers from 4-10 (with 4 being the lowest score, and 10 being the highest possible score).

Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen (NCP) and Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) got the highest grades with 7.38 and 7.37 respectively.

Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (Finns) and Education Minister Anders Adlercreutz (SFP) both scored 6.60.

In the middle of the ministerial pack comes PM Petteri Orpo (NCP) and Christian Democrat leader Sari Essayah on 6.43 - both down slightly from last year’s polling. With Finance Minister Riikka Purra (Finns) on 6.04, the biggest drop of any minister compared to last year.

The weakest grades all went to Finns Party ministers: Ville Tavio, Kaisa Juuso and Wille Rydman.

Doubling down. And to compound those ministerial woes… MTV Uutiset did some polling of its own, asking Finns Party regional chairpersons their thoughts on how their own ministers had been performing this year. They also ranked Kaisa Juuso as the worst of the lot (although still 83% of them reckon she’s doing well).

Sick. MP Antti Kangas (Finns) has gone on sick leave after a week of media headlines which he concedes in a video were not “terribly positive.” As you might remember from last week’s newsletter, Long Play revealed that North Ostrobothnia MP Kangas arranged for a company he co-owns, and an organisation it runs, to be invited to give evidence before a parliamentary committee. Long Play said Kangas’ company could be in line for some lucrative government contracts. Now Kangas says he has had a heavy workload what with being an MP, running different businesses including a family farm, and he needs time off.

“In September-October, my memory started to fail so badly that I couldn't remember the passwords for any services. I slept on the sofa in the Parliament one night because I didn't know where I lived in Helsinki. All the things I hadn't written down in my notebook disappeared,” Kangas said in a Tiktok video he filmed in a car.

He says that his mental health situation deteriorated in the last two weeks, and that he “forgot everything.”

“I didn’t remember my children’s birthdays. I didn’t remember anything.”

Speed demon. Lahti MP Tere Sammallahti (NCP) got a €770 speeding fine from police in Kanta-Häme just before Christmas, for driving 84km/h in a 60km zone. “There's nothing you can do, you can only thank your own stupidity for this,” Sammallahti wrote on X, noting that no other cars were around and it was not a dangerous driving situation.

👨‍🍼 New addition. Kokoomus MP Atte Kaleva and his wife welcomed their third child over the Christmas holidays. Congratulations on the new arrival!

Finland international

🌐 While most of Finland’s international news this week has been dominated by the Baltic Sea sabotage and seizing of the Cook Islands ship by Finnish authorities, there’s a couple of other stories worth noting:

🇺🇦 Ukraine. More Finns have been killed fighting in Ukraine than has previously been reported, according to Turun Sanomat. The paper quotes a Foreign Ministry official saying there are likely to be ten Finnish fatalities, while so far six deaths were known. The Foreign Ministry says it will put together a new information pack for any Finns who are thinking of going to Ukraine to fight.

🇫🇮 OSCE. A reminder that Finland takes over the rotating presidency of the OSCE on 1 January 2025. I’ll have a look at what that means in practice in the new year.

And finally…

️⚽️ Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo was visiting Lapland this week for a festive family holiday where they posed with Santa Claus in a sleigh, saw the Northern Lights, tried ice swimming - avanto - and went skiing. Ronaldo, who plays in Saudi Arabia, has more than 646 million followers on Instagram, while his partner Georgina Rodriguez posted more photos to her own 64 million Instagram followers, bringing plenty of attention to the amazing winter adventure options in Lapland!

Thank you, kiitos, tack

That’s all for this week’s Finland Insider newsletter, and that’s all for 2024 as well! Thanks for reading along throughout the year and hope you’ll be back in 2025 for more weekly news from Finland.

In the meantime if you have any comments, story ideas, tips or suggestions please get in touch with me directly [email protected].

Have a happy and peaceful new year.

David