Hello Insiders!

It’s been another week filled with headlines from Ukraine, the US and Moscow as Donald Trump’s peace negotiators went for talks at the Kremlin. It can seem like an abstract concept about why the war in Ukraine is so important in Finland and it’s not just because we share a 1340km eastern border with Russia. It’s because if the US is not a reliable partner for security here in Europe (and with the mercurial Donald Trump in the White House you can never tell from day to day) then Finland is going to be one of those countries that needs to massively boost its defence spending and capabilities.

That’s something President Stubb has been talking about this week. In other news I’ve also got a look at the impending municipal elections, a nasty stomach bug that’s sent scores of MPs running to the nearest toilet; there’s the start of a murder trial that will absolutely keep us all gripped, a Finnish city being touted as the cleanest in the world, and an MEP who might have outed himself as a hypocrite - shocking, I know!

All that is still to come, but first this:

Inside track: Ukraine, Russia and Donald Trump

📺 President Alex Stubb gave an interview to BBC News on Sunday morning, where he talked about Russia in blunt terms. He said the signs that the Kremlin was paying proper attention to calls for peace were “abysmal”.

“I don’t think Putin wants a ceasefire, Putin doesn’t want peace. His original aim was basically to destroy the independent sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. Basically to have Ukraine ceasing to exist. He hasn’t changed his aim,” the president said.

Although Stubb said Russia’s actions meant “militarising Ukraine to the teeth” he said it was “too early to talk about boots on the ground” and did not commit Finnish troops to such a role in Ukraine. Instead, Stubb said Finland would take care of security on the northern flank along the border with Russia, and could provide assistance in other ways including sharing intelligence.

🇺🇸 In his Sunday morning BBC interview, President Stubb went out of his way to praise US President Donald Trump, saying “don’t underestimate the capacity of the President of the United States” when it comes to negotiating a deal. [Note: That’s part of a strategy where Stubb and other senior leaders have studiously avoided saying anything negative about Donald Trump because, frankly, they fear he will turn on them or their country and slap some trade sanctions as a punishment!] 

🌐 Stubb’s comments came after he participated in an online conference on Saturday, hosted by the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and involving officials from NATO, the EU, nearly two dozen European countries, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The meeting was part of Britain’s effort to build a so-called “Coalition of the Willing” to provide security guarantees to Ukraine in the possible event the US further disengaged from European security.

👍 Earlier, Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (NCP) welcomed news of a possible interim ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia (although it seems that with a few days hindsight, nothing has come of this proposal as yet, because the Russians have attached a string of conditions to it…)

📊 About half of Finns do not trust the US to provide military assistance under NATO's Article V if Finland needed help - against Russian aggression, for example. That’s the headline finding in a new poll carried out for Helsingin Sanomat.

🤝 Ilta-Sanomat examines the close relationship between President Stubb and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

💰 Finland approved a new arms assistance package for Ukraine this week worth around €200 million. On Thursday, Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen (NCP) met with his Ukrainian opposite number Rustem Umerov to sign a new deal on defence cooperation between the two countries.

🛰️ Professor Marko Höyhtyä from the National Defence University has been talking about the importance of Finland’s Iceye satellite network in providing battlefield imagery to Ukraine. Iceye develops radar satellites and has launched 44 of them into space since 2018.

💰 Finance Minister Riikka Purro (Finns) says she believes NATO’s target for defence spending will inevitably have to climb to 3.5% of GDP.

⚖️ A Finnish court sentenced a former member of a Russian far-right paramilitary group to life in prison on four counts of war crimes. Russian national Voislav Torden was found to have been involved in killing a soldier and shared images of the victim. The extremist group under his command massacred 22 Ukrainian soldiers in 2014 in the eastern Luhansk region. His lawyers say they will appeal the sentence.

🇺🇦 Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (Finns) paid an official visit to Kyiv this week. She met with her Ukrainian counterpart Ihor Klymenko, who said “the Nordic countries, in particular the Republic of Finland, are currently helping Ukraine to survive this war the most.”

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Inside the headlines

🚨 Police in the capital region have been dealing with a mass crash on Kehä I ring road on Sunday. Up to nine cars were involved in the smash, and officials say drivers are suspected of driving too close to the vehicle in front.

⚖️ The trial began this week of Norwegian veterinarian Rolf Nordmo, accused of murdering his Finnish partner ex-hockey player Janne Puhakka at their former home in Espoo last year. Prosecutors say the shooting was planned and premeditated.

🇫🇮 Former presidential candidate, European Commissioner and Centre Party stalwart Olli Rehn has been appointed for a second term as the Chairman of the Bank of Finland.

🏡 Some Rovaniemi residents have taken to the streets protesting about the number of Airbnb rentals available in the Lapland town, at a time when there’s a shortage of housing. They say government plans to overhaul the rules about short-term rentals will only make things worse.

🏛️ Interior Minister Mari Rantanen (Finns) survived a vote of no-confidence in parliament on Wednesday 94-53 (with 15 abstentions and 37 MPs absent - some of them sick with the stomach flu that’s been going around). The Greens and Left Alliance had called for the vote after the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman said that Rantanen’s ministry had given priority to Christian refugees over those from Muslim-majority countries in policy documents, something Rantanen denies.

🌲 The Sunday Times newspaper in UK has a look at Turku’s plans to become carbon neutral by 2029 - a full two decades before the EU’s own 2050 targets - and praises its efforts to become the world’s cleanest city.

Insider politics

🔢 Candidates running in next month’s election were assigned their numbers this week, so expect to be deluged with flyers and online adverts with the candidates, their pictures and crucially the numbers they want you to write on the ballot paper when you get to the voting booth next month!

♀️ Kuntaliitto notes there’s a record proportion of female candidates running for election in April.

🗳️ You might have noticed candidate campaign posters springing up all over the country, ahead of April’s municipal elections, and regional healthcare board voting. But one notable political name seemed to get an early start on his campaigning - and although it’s a minor point he’s actually breaking election laws here: Swedish People’s Party leader Anders Adlercreutz had some posters up hours before he was legally allowed to do so.

🟡 The Finns Party seems to be struggling to find candidates in the upcoming election. As Helsingin Sanomat reports, there are 16 municipalities in Finland that do not have any Finns Party candidates at all in the municipal or regional healthcare board elections. Nine of these municipalities currently have at least one Finns Party representative on the council.

🚔 Meanwhile the Finns Party has withdrawn its support for a candidate in Jyväskylä after it was revealed he had been convicted of sexual abuse of a child, and possession of an indecent image of a child, according to Hesari.

🔴 Left Alliance leader Minja Koskela has been using her municipal election campaign trail stump speech to criticise the government for being out of touch with what voters around the country want to talk about. Koskela says people are deeply concerned about health and social care in their areas, but the government is simply not addressing key issues like continued provision of 24-hour emergency care or maternity hospital places.

🤢 A stomach virus swept through parliament this week, and at one point about half of all MPs were stricken with the bug.

🚪 Former PM Antti Rinne (SDP) is leaving his role at Samak, a European umbrella group for social democrats, and there could be some disagreements behind the departure, HS reports.

🇪🇺 Finns Party MEP Sebastian Tynkkynen has been hitting the headlines this week because of the number of staff working on his team. Ilta-Sanomat revealed that the Oulu politician has nine staff in Brussels and one person in Finland: while other Finnish MEPs have five or fewer staff in total. My favourite part of this story? Tynkkynen was a fierce critic of the number of staff former PM Sanna Marin (SDP) had on her staff during her time in office…

Finland international

🇲🇰 Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen has offered Finland’s condolences after a deadly nightclub fire in North Macedonia left at least 59 people dead overnight.

🇭🇺 Finnish MEP Aura Salla (NCP) says that Hungary should be booted out of the European Union if it continues to be a roadblock to imposing tougher sanctions on Russia. “We must finally find a way to kick Orbán out of the house” she said this week, ahead of a key vote on sanctions which Hungary had threatened to veto. “He cannot hold the entire Union hostage permanently,” she said.

🇺🇸 The USA has an egg shortage, and the problem has become so bad they’ve turned to other countries - including Finland - to ask for some emergency egg exports. (Or should that be 🥚 eggs-ports? OK, I’ll stop now!) The short answer is sorry, no. The longer answer a little more bureaucratic.

And finally… 

The municipality of Vöyri in Ostrobothnia welcomed back its most famous residents for a concert this weekend. The comedy trio KAJ will represent Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel, Switzerland in May with their ode to sauna life “Bara bada bastu.”

Watch them play to their hometown audience:

Thank you, kiitos, tack

If you made it to the end, as usual I salute your efforts! 🤗

Let me know if you have some story ideas, a scoop, interesting information to share or just your thoughts on the Finland Insider newsletter. In the meantime have a good week and catch you again next Sunday.

David