Russia boots nine Finnish diplomats in tit-for-tat response

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
6 Jul 2023 15:31

Russia's foreign ministry says that the decision was due to Helsinki's recent "confrontational actions."

Russia's Foreign Ministry building in Moscow, Russia (Foreign Ministry website)

Russia expelled nine Finnish diplomats on Thursday in a tit-for-tat response after Helsinki ended last June the mission of nine Russian diplomats in Finland for allegedly acting in an "intelligence capacity".

"Nine employees of the Finnish Embassy in the Russian Federation and the Finnish Consulate General in Saint Petersburg were declared persona non grata," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement.

"As part of the response to the confrontational actions of the Finnish authorities, the Russian side decided to withdraw from October 1 its consent to the activities of the Consulate General of Finland in Saint Petersburg," the statement added.

Relations between Russia and its Nordic neighbor, which recently became the newest NATO member, have deteriorated in recent years after Helsinki joined the US-led Western campaign against Moscow, which was put in overdrive after the beginning of the war in Ukraine.

On May 16, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko considered that Finland's accession to NATO and its location in northern Europe will "spur" the US-led military alliance's ambitions to militarize the Arctic.

"After Finland joins NATO, they will say that NATO has a vulnerability of 1,200 kilometers with a country that they have declared a direct threat to the alliance, so it is necessary to deploy American forces there, build foreign bases, place weapons depots, and increase military activity," Grushko told RTRN TV channel then.

"Since Finland is located in the north of Europe, this will spur NATO's ambitions to militarize the Arctic," the Russian diplomat pointed out.

In late April, Finland recorded its highest year-on-year increase in defense spending since 1962.

The Nordic country's military spending increased from 1.3 to 2% of GDP in a matter of years, fueled by a number of costly military purchases.

It also witnessed the most drastic spending increase in the EU (36%), after Finland went on an arms shopping craze which included a new fleet of 64 F-35 fighter jets from US weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. The 10-billion-euro procurement was billed as the single largest splurge in its history.

During the late Cold War, Finland spent about 1.9% of its GDP on defense, but that figure dropped in the following years, reaching 1.1% of GDP in 2001.