The Finnish media, including Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, have attacked in mob fashion Kimmo Kiljunen, member of the Social Democratic Party and chairperson of the foreign affairs committee, for speaking candidly to representatives of the Alexander Union, a Finnish-Russian association, about the Finnish-Russian border as well as other matters.
Today, an editorial by Helsingin Sanomat highlighted “the unusual problems” of Kiljunen’s comments to Alexander Union. It wrote: “In the video, Kiljunen expressed some unusual opinions on Finland’s policy towards Russia. Among other things, he said that he considers the closure of the eastern border a violation of human rights and the ban on Russian real estate transactions to be racist. Kiljunen claimed that the Finnish tabloids were playing into the hands of Russian trolls with their critical articles.”
Are the above comments “unusual” and did they warrant such outrage? Or are Kiljunen’s views similar to what human rights experts and academicians pointed out about the dangers of the pushback law, which was approved by parliament in July?
Again, we must ask what did Kiljunen say wrong? Was he too candid in his views that the closing of the Finnish-Russian border is a slap in the face of human rights, and that National Coalition Party politicians like Antti Häkkänen can reinforce prejudices that Russians are a threat and that they should be barred from buying land? Did Kiljunen step on the government’s feet?
Even if the above restrictions do not prevent Finnish-Russian residents from buying land, they do send a clear message: Russians are a threat, and they should not be trusted. The war in Ukraine and the terrible invasion by Russia have made a bad situation worse by reinforcing people’s xenophobia toward Russians.
Some politicians, including President Aleksander Stubb, have even questioned the right of Russian speakers to hold dual citizenship.
Making such a suggestion, as did happen during a presidential campaign debate earlier this year, brings memories but in a different context of the Nuremberg Laws, which stripped the Jews of their rights in Nazi Germany.
The attacks and Kiljunen’s character assassination even by his party reveal a lot about Finland’s issues with xenophobia and suspicion of its Russian-speaking community, the third largest after Finnish and Swedish speakers.
Not understanding the racism in the debate is comprehending very little about the whole issue of how Finland’s Russian community is treated.
*Read the original posting on Linkedin here.