Russian military warning, Tallinn tunnel 'bullshit' and Eurovision fever

Hello Insiders!

Thank goodness it’s the weekend, right?

It’s the end of a rather busy week which saw Helsinki play host to Baltic NATO leaders discussing the pressing issue of infrastructure security and maritime safety. When Finland and Sweden joined NATO, the Baltic was supposed to become “NATO Lake” so the recent spate of damage to undersea cables and pipelines makes the military alliance look like it got caught with its pants down while Russia and its fleet of ghost ships carried out acts of sabotage seemingly at will.

But also this week there’s a big spotlight shining on safety for Finnish politicians after former PM Sanna Marin obtained a new restraining order from a man who has been stalking her; while another MP saw his attacker sentenced and yet another MP spoke out about the hundreds of messages of abuse she gets on a regular basis.

But it’s not all doom and gloom! There’s inspiration from a Turku long-distance runner, comedy with F1 driver Valtteri Bottas and lots of silliness when it comes to the annual Eurovision Song Contest selection process to lighten the mood!

Here’s all the big stories of the week, and some which might have flown beneath your radar. It’s time to get caught up:

Inside the headlines

🇷🇺 Russia. Finland’s chief of military intelligence is warning that planned Russian military reforms which would increase Moscow's troop numbers by 30% are a threat to NATO and should be met with vigilance. Pekka Turunen made the comments in an interview with Reuters news agency on Thursday, following the publication of his organisation’s annual report.

“The number of Russian troops based in Finland's vicinity could double or triple from the period before the Ukraine war”, Turunen said, with a new corps to be deployed in Russia's adjacent Karelia region and existing units to be expanded in the Kola Peninsula and around St. Petersburg.

🔫 Military. Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen (NCP) is planning to raise the age limit for men serving in the military reserves to 65.

🚇 Tallinn tunnel. Remember the planned project to build a high-speed rail tunnel under the Baltic Sea linking Helsinki Airport with Tallinn Airport, which would make the journey in less than 30 minutes as it zipped through new island communities? The Finnish entrepreneurs behind the plan - including former Angry Birds hype man Peter Vesterbacka - were at one point promising ticket sales for trips starting in December 2024. But since not one centimetre of tunnel has been built I presume that’s not happening: with the whole project seemingly mired in security and funding concerns, environmental impact studies and planning red tape.

But now one of Europe’s leading experts in cross-border rail planning has branded the whole scheme “bullshit.”

Writing online, Jon Worth says that building the tunnel is a “bullshit idea”. “Twice as long as the Channel Tunnel and serving fewer than half the people. No idea how it’s possibly economic to build it.” Ouch!

👮 Police. A new report from Amnesty Finland finds that police don’t always provide adequate security at protests, with shortcomings including using disproportionate force, and unnecessarily dispersing demonstrations. Amnesty also found that police in Finland do not always protect the work of journalists.

Your regular reminder: Journalism is not a crime.  

✈️ Flights. The government has decided to continue subsidising flights to regional airports, even if they have very few passengers on board. The services, to places like Kemi and Kokkola, are often only 50% full (or less) and make losses totalling millions of euros every year. Supporters of the scheme say that these connections to remote regions are essential for onward international travel through Helsinki Airport. Detractors argue that it’s environmentally unfriendly; wastes taxpayer money on woefully under-used services; and the money that airport operator Finavia uses to maintain some of these tiny regional airports could better be spent improving facilities, for example at Rovaniemi where there’s been a huge increase in the number of flights and passengers.

📊 Life/Death. What’s the life expectancy where you live in Finland? Not surprisingly, it varies in different parts of the country. Ilta-Sanomat has crunched the latest data and come up with some maps.

🍎 Groceries. The Tokmanni department store chain - know for its wide range of bargain items - is moving into the grocery business by licensing the SPAR brand for use in its Finnish stores.

“Tokmanni will focus on refining the SPAR concept to fit the Finnish market and offering customers a wide assortment of SPAR products,” the company says in a press release. The first of its 20 stores will have the Spar rebranding completed by summer, and there’s a possibility Tokmanni will open up stand-alone Spar stores in the coming years.

🐺 Poop. The Finnish Hunters’ Association is paying €50 for wolf poop samples, which will be studied for DNA mapping. The samples have to be viable - ie, fairly fresh! - and collected by hunting clubs, not individuals.

🏃‍♂️ Runner. Turku runner Mustafe Muuse gave a powerful speech when he was awarded the Role Model of the Year prize at the annual Sports Gala this week. The long-distance athlete spoke about building bridges, supporting fellow human beings, creating hope and extending a helping hand to give opportunities.

🎵 Eurovision. All seven songs that Finland is considering sending to this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland, have now been released. Public broadcaster Yle drip-fed a new track every day this week, and there’s a diverse range of songs on offer: from a Finnish-language power ballad and a 00’s-inspired dance track; to a Tango singer who gyrates around smearing herself with goopy gold liquid in her video, singing “I’m coming” in German; and a group whose chorus involves them screaming the word “puppy” into their microphones…

The public will get to vote on their favourite at a live show taking place in Tampere on 8 February. For the record, my favourite is North Karelian singer-songwriter Goldielocks with her sophisticated international track “Made of”. No gimmicks required.

Insider politics

Politician safety. Three stories in the media this week underscore how frequently members of parliament can face safety issues in their jobs.

Sanna Marin. A Helsinki court extended a restraining order against a 35-year-old man who is suspected of stalking the former Social Democrat prime minister. He was seen hanging around the stairwell of Marin’s residence and had attempted to enter her home. He had previously been issued with a restraining order and it has now been extended at Marin’s request.

Nasima Razmyar. The SDP MP, who has Afghan origins, told Helsingin Sanomat this week that she is bombarded on a daily basis with “hundreds of” abusive messages.

Ben Zyskowicz. Helsinki District Court sentenced a 40-year-old man to 47 hours of community service for assaulting the Kokoomus MP during the 2023 general election campaign. The court heard how the suspect insulted Zyskowicz’ Jewish heritage.

🤔 Double duty. Should Members of Parliament also sit on the regional healthcare boards? It’s a question which will come up again this spring with the latest round of regional healthcare board elections. Ilta-Sanomat has looked at the participation of MPs in the boards and has some perhaps (un)surprising results:

• 113 MPs were elected to their regional healthcare boards.

• Only 1-in-3 actively participated: ie, attended 80% of meetings or more.

• 23 have already quit, including 4 government ministers. Seven ministers remain.

• Half of those who quit their board positions are from the far-right Finns Party.

• The worst performing MP is Sheikki Laakso (Finns) who showed up for the first meeting of the Kymenlaakso regional healthcare board in 2023 and then was never seen again.

• Only six MPs have been to all of their board meetings: Henrik Wikström (SFP), Aki Lindén (SDP), Sofia Vikman (NCP), Jaana Strandman (Finns), Paula Risikko (NCP) and Mikko Ollikainen (SFP).

• Honorable mention goes to the Minister of Regional and Local Government Anna-Kaisa Ikonen who, despite her extra ministerial duties, only missed one out of 21 meetings of the regional healthcare board where she’s a member.

🍺 Drunk. Remember the Finns Party MP who was kicked off a Finnair flight last weekend for being too drunk to fly? Tomi Immonen eventually made it to Bangkok for his Thai holiday and admitted his bad behaviour in a Facebook post. However now public broadcaster Yle has uncovered some other concerning information about his behaviour.

In an article this week, Yle says Immonen “behaved disruptively” at a Christmas party in parliament.

“One eyewitness alleged that Immonen grabbed the leader of the Green Party, Sofia Virta, by the waist and pulled the reluctant female MP closer to him […] as the karaoke music played, the witness alleged that Immonen kept tightly hugging Virta, adding that the party leader appeared visibly distressed by the situation,” Yle reports.

💚 The Vihreät candidate for Helsinki mayor, Atte Harjanne, was in hospital on Thursday for some (thankfully) minor heart surgery. I wish him a speedy recovery.

🦋 And speaking of the Greens, they’ve become the first Finnish political party to quit Elon Musk’s hate-speech-filled platform X (formerly Twitter) and move to Bluesky instead. Party leader Sofia Vikman justified the move because of “the problematic nature of the service, which is reflected in the direct support given to the far right by its owner, Elon Musk."

Left. The Left Alliance has removed one of its candidates from the upcoming municipal elections. Hannu Tiainen was on the Left Alliance list in Pirkanmaa, but fell foul of his party after writing a column in Aamulehti newspaper in December which was pro-Russian, and echoed Kremlin propaganda lines about the war in Ukraine.

Finland international

🇮🇱🇵🇸 Israel / Palestine. President Stubb says he is “relieved” by the news of a ceasefire and the release of hostages in Gaza.

“The ceasefire agreement will allow the hostages to be reunited with their families. The agreement will also ensure that the people of Gaza receive the humanitarian aid they so desperately need,” the president wrote on X.

“The agreement is an important step in building peace in the Middle East. I encourage all parties to seize this opportunity to continue their efforts to resolve the conflict and find a lasting solution based on the two-state model.”

🌊 Baltic Sea. NATO has launched Operation Baltic Sentry to boost the military alliance’s presence in the Baltic Sea and improve security around critical infrastructure. NATO’s Secretary General Mark Rutte made the announcement at a meeting of Baltic Sea leaders in Helsinki this week.

🇫🇮 The meeting was hosted by Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who said “the measures now decided will strengthen deterrence in the Baltic Sea and raise the threshold for damaging infrastructure. Sabotage of critical underwater infrastructure must be considered as a form of hybrid influence.”

Leaders of NATO countries in the Baltic Sea region have agreed to use all means available under international law to counter the threat posed by the shadow fleet. The countries will increase surveillance of vessels suspected of being part of the shadow fleet. They will also continue with the previously initiated inspections of ships’ insurance certificates to cover potential oil spills.

And finally…

Finnish Formula 1 race ace Valtteri Bottas is really carving out a comedy niche for himself in his adopted homeland of Australia. This week he has a new sketch out on Instagram where he’s got a body double standing in for all his activities. At least, it made me laugh!

Thank you, kiitos, tack!

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading all the way to the end. The Finland Insider newsletter is back next Saturday afternoon. In the meantime if you’ve got any story ideas, tips or suggestions please get in touch directly at [email protected]

Bye for now!

David