PFinnish resident Niinisto: Putin “went all in” in Ukraine Niinisto also spoke about the easy reaction of the Russian president to Finland’s plans to join NATO. In his opinion, Moscow decided to “ignore it”
Sauli Niinisto
A really disturbing event for Helsinki was the statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin about the entry of the republics of Donbass, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions into the country forever, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
“I interpreted it as if he was putting everything on the war, talking about “[joining] forever.” He played poker and went all-in. It still bothers me that we are dealing with someone who goes to all lengths without being able to win everything. And what does it mean if you lose, if you bet everything?— continued Niinisto.”The worst thing is that there is no end in sight.”
The determination of Ukrainians was underestimated, Joseph Stalin made a similar mistake before the start of the Soviet-Finnish War, believing that Soviet troops would take Helsinki in two weeks, he continued. Speaking about the way to achieve peace for Ukraine, the President of Finland said that “it is difficult to regain its territory”, and recalled that his country had made a difficult decision on a peace agreement with the Soviet Union, having lost part of the territory. At the same time, he stressed that only Ukrainians should determine what will become a just world.
Niinisto said he was surprised by Putin’s easy reaction to Finland’s decision to join NATO. In his opinion, Moscow decided “not to pay attention to it”, one of the reasons the Finnish president called the unwillingness of the Russian government to say that “now we have a new problem in Northern Europe”. “What you did is wrong, of course,” [Putin] said, but it’s not so disturbing,” he retold to Niinista the contents of the conversation with the president of Russia.
The Finnish authorities decided to apply to NATO in mid-May, until today this process is blocked by Turkey, which requires the fulfillment of a number of conditions, in particular, to extradite members of the Ankara-recognized terrorist organization PKK.
Putin called Helsinki’s decision a mistake, recalling that the country had previously adhered to neutrality, and stressing that Russia does not pose a threat. “Such a change in the country’s foreign policy course may negatively affect Russian-Finnish relations,” he noted. At the same time, his representative Dmitry Peskov called the prospect of Finland joining NATO an unconditional threat to Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned that in such a scenario, Moscow “will be forced to take retaliatory steps both of a military-technical and other nature”.
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Niinisto phoned Putin at that time, in mid-May. According to him, the dialogue was cold-blooded. The President of Finland said that he called because he was worried about possible “military-technical measures” of counteraction, which were mentioned in Moscow’s warnings.
Authors Person Tags
Vladimir Putin
politician, president of Russia
October 7, 1952
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