Finnish President Sauli Niinistö had a “direct and blunt” phone conversation with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Saturday about his country’s accession to the Western military alliance NATO – the latest point of friction between Western governments and Moscow.
In the statement saying he called Putin, Niinistö says that “everything went well” and that “avoiding tensions was considered important.”
The Kremlin was more direct in its account of the call, saying that Putin told Niinistö that ending Finland’s military neutrality would be a “mistake”. “Vladimir Putin stressed that ending the traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake as there is no threat to Finland’s security,” the statement said.
Finland’s candidacy for the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance, viewed with disgust by Moscow, is set to become official this Sunday and is a direct consequence of the Ukraine War. Sweden has already signaled that it also intends to join the 30-nation military alliance in the coming days, and is expected to make the application official as early as Monday.
But any country that wants to join the alliance needs the unanimous support of its members, and Turkey, the group’s second-largest army, can veto new accessions. Ankara has criticized Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but it is also a close ally of Putin and has opposed sanctions against Moscow.
On Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said it would not be possible to support the expansion of the alliance because Finland and Sweden were “home to many terrorist organizations”. Erdogan has criticized these countries for years for taking in refugees persecuted by Ankara, belonging to organizations that the Turkish government considers terrorists.
Turkey has not closed doors, says spokesperson
On Saturday, however, Erdogan’s spokesman said his country had not closed the door on Sweden and Finland’s entry into NATO.
“We are not closing the door. But we are basically raising this issue as a national security issue for Turkey,” Ibrahim Kalin, who is also the president’s top foreign policy adviser, told Reuters in an interview in Istanbul.
Kalin said the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union – was raising funds and recruiting members in Europe and that its presence was “strong, open and recognized” particularly in Sweden.
“What must be done is clear: they need to stop allowing PKK establishments, activities, organizations, individuals and other types of presence in these countries,” Kalin said.
“Joining NATO is always a process. We’ll see how things go. But this is the first point on which we want to draw the attention of all allies, as well as the Swedish authorities,” he added. “Of course we want to have a discussion, a negotiation with Swedish colleagues.”
“If they [Finlândia e Suécia] they have a public concerned about their own national security, we have a public that is equally concerned about our own security,” he said. “We have to look at it from a mutual point of view.”
Kalin says Putin’s discontent with NATO enlargement is not a factor in Turkey’s position.
In the midst of the crisis, Finland will be left without electricity supplied to it by Russia. Exports to the neighboring country were suspended in the early hours of Friday (13) to Saturday (14) due to non-payment, according to the company responsible, RAO Nordic – which has 100% Russian capital.
The grid continued to function thanks to imports from Sweden, according to information released in real time by Fingrid, the Finnish operator, which said on Friday it could do without Russian electricity.
RAO Nordic, based in Helsinki, is a subsidiary of the Russian company InterRAO. On Friday, the company said it has not received payment from Finland since May 6.
It was not revealed whether the payment problems are related to European economic sanctions adopted against Russia after the invasion of Ukraine.
G7 vows to extend sanctions
Meanwhile, G7 foreign ministers pledged to extend sanctions against Moscow to “sectors on which Russia is particularly dependent” and urged China’s government “not to undermine” the punitive measures.
Meeting in Germany on Saturday, ministers from the world’s seven richest nations said the group would never recognize “the borders that Russia wants to forcefully impose” in the Ukraine War.
“We will maintain our commitment to support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea,” they said in a statement.
The seven countries (Germany, Canada, the United States, France, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom) also condemned “the irresponsible threats of the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
