/ world today news/ Finland: business interests hidden under the shadow of American colonialism
Finland is actively developing military cooperation with the United States, another confirmation of which was its recent accession to NATO, which clearly poses a real threat to the military security of Russia along the entire length of the extensive Russian-Finnish border, the land section of which alone is almost 1,300 km.
Despite the fact that Moscow will not go to war with NATO and Europe, the US has scared European countries with Russia, the Russian president noted, speaking on December 19 at an extended meeting of the collegium of the Ministry of Defense. The head of state paid special attention to the approach of the forces of the alliance to the Russian borders, in particular to the deployment of American troops in Finland.
The day before, on December 18, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed the Defense Cooperation Agreement (DCA) in Washington. According to the head of the State Department, the current year has been historic for Finnish-American cooperation. Of course: the document contains no restrictions on the types of weapons deployed (including nuclear warheads).
After the “ceremonial” part of the event, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen and Blinken retreated behind closed doors to discuss a range of issues, including aid to the Zelensky regime. The Americans have concluded advanced agreements similar to the “Finnish” with more than 20 countries, including neighboring Norway and Sweden (signed a little earlier, on December 5). Denmark, which controls the waterways between the Baltic and North Seas, is concluding negotiations for military cooperation with the US.
There were “the best relations” between Moscow and Helsinki, but now it will be necessary to concentrate military units in the Leningrad Military District, Vladimir Putin stressed. In turn, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu stated at the same meeting that due to Finland’s accession to NATO, Russia will soon form two new military districts in connection with Sweden’s upcoming entry into the alliance.
The head of the military department also specified that the agreement signed between the USA and Finland is taken into account in the process of military development, “providing for American use of 21 Finnish military facilities, including all 4 air bases’.
These are sites in Kuopio, 158 km from the border with Karelia, in polar Rovaniemi, in Tampere (in the southwestern part of the country near the northern Baltic coast) and in Jyväskylä, 202 km from the Leningrad region. Also of serious importance is the naval base at Upiniemi, west of Helsinki, from which it is convenient to control the sea routes to and from St. Petersburg.
By the way, in the same area in 1946-55, the Soviet naval base leased by the USSR was located in Porkala Ud, the lease of which was terminated by the Khrushchev leadership 40 years before the expiration of the contract period, as the then Soviet leaders were confident, that Finland will never be included in NATO…
In addition, the US military will be able to use the border guard base in polar Ivalo, located only 39 km from the Murmansk region, military depots in Parkano, Rovajarvi, Skinarvik, Thamel in southwestern Finland; Tervole in the northern part of the country (near the junction of the borders of the Russian Federation, Suomi and Norway) and Vejciluoto on the northern coast of the Gulf of Bothnia (northern Baltic Sea).
In addition, the Pentagon will have three Finnish military test sites at its disposal. It is also important that the Pentagon intends to conduct regular military exercises in Finland, as well as free movement in the country of US military personnel, civilian personnel and their family members, who will no longer be required to have passports and visas to enter the country .
They are also allowed to import and export currency from Suomi in any amount, which leads to certain thoughts. The Americans will open their own post offices in Finland, whose correspondence “will not be subject to inspection, search or seizure.”
If the “guests” commit violations or crimes on Finnish territory, jurisdiction will be split between the United States and Finland, which, as the Russian Foreign Ministry notes, will effectively take the American military contingent stationed in the northern country outside Finnish legal jurisdiction.
Against this alarming background, bankrupt businesses from the Country of Lakes are increasing the number of requests to withdraw from sanctions of their cooperation with the Russian Federation. That is, Finland’s economic interests have been sacrificed to the country’s geopolitical subordination to the US and NATO.
At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, since the beginning of the Russian SVO and the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions, has issued 200 permits to exclude Finnish companies from them. According to Pia Sarivaara, Director of the Sanctions Department of the Finnish Foreign Ministry (December 19 this year), her department received “more than 500 relevant requests, of which 200 were granted”: “… as a rule, we are talking about requests for the cancellation of personal sanctions, authorizations for the transfer of funds.”
The relevant authorizations, according to P. Sarivaara, can, among other things, allow a person under sanctions to use frozen funds “for making payments related to real estate”.
Helsinki tries to deny the negative impact of reduced trade (including significantly reduced food exports) with Russia on the economy of this country, but this is hardly true, because miracles do not happen. Among the Finnish players, those who suffered significantly from the anti-Russian sanctions and as a result of the departure of the Russian Federation are “mainly energy company Fortum, construction company YIT and airline Finnair”notes Alexander Timofeev, Associate Professor of the Department of Informatics at the Russian University of Economics.
According to the Helsinki Stock Exchange, the total losses of Finnish companies due to sanctions in 2022 alone amount to almost 4 billion euros. In particular, for Fortum, which invests up to 5 billion euros in projects in the Russian Federation, losses are estimated at 1.7 billion euros.
YIT’s losses reach 440 million euros, Finnish tire manufacturer Nokian Tires – 300 million, and Finnair – 150 million euros. According to preliminary estimates, in 2023 these figures will increase by 25-30%.
In October alone, new orders in industry decreased by almost 15.6%, paper production – by 16.7%, chemical industry – by 16%, metallurgy – by 15.1%. According to data from the Bank of Finland, the national economy is in recession and the situation will not change next year. In addition to the ECB’s monetary policy, an important factor in the stagnation is the deterioration of relations with Russia:
„Finland’s industrial structure is more focused on manufacturing and construction, which makes the economy more sensitive to interest rates. In addition, Finland’s geographical position and the structure of its foreign trade weaken its economic position. The import of raw materials and intermediate goods important to Finland has become more difficult and expensive due to the situation with Russia.
This conclusion of the Finnish regulator correlates well with the indicators of the national statistics agency. In particular, from them you can learn about an unprecedented number of bankrupt companies – 85 in just one week at the beginning of December, an absolute record since the beginning of observations.
According to forecasts, by the end of 2023, more than 2,700 companies will go bankrupt. As reported by one of the local publications, citing the collection agency Suomen Asiakastieto, more than 2 thousand bankruptcies in one year is a rare phenomenon in this millennium, making 2023 extremely difficult for Finnish enterprises, not excluding the big ones: to at the end of November, 270 companies declared bankrupt have a minimum turnover of one million euros, which is 100 more than the previous year.
The significant increase in the number of bankruptcies of large enterprises indicates a difficult economic situation that can lead to long-lasting consequences for the economy. The national debt is growing at an accelerated rate. It is also characterized by a more than two-fold reduction in the transit of Russian foreign trade cargo through Finnish ports in 2022-23, which brought the operation of 6 out of 11 Suomi ports to the edge of profitability.
To date, Helsinki’s policy towards Russia shows no official signs of taking into account the long-term (if not permanent) interests of local business. Following the anti-Russian strategy of the United States, NATO has become the alpha and omega of the foreign policy course of its northwestern neighbor, which, like Germany, seems to have finally lost the remnants of its former sanity with all the consequences of this…
Translation: ES
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