In an effort to revive economic ties between Russia and Finland after the imposition of anti-Russian sanctions, Moscow media referred to a trip to Sochi in southern Russia, made by Finnish President Sauli Niinistö. He also discussed the Ukraine crisis with Russian host Vladimir Putin and said the announced sanctions were hurting both sides. From Sochi, Niinistö will head to Kyiv, where, according to the Finnish presidential office, he will meet Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
Since the sanctions were directly triggered by the Ukraine crisis, everyone should be careful to end it, said Niinistö in Sochi. “The Ukraine catastrophe has affected everyone, some people are talking about renewing the Cold War,” said the Finnish president. According to him, the traditional good relations between Russia and Finland also suffered “a certain breakdown”.
Finland is among the EU countries that have suffered the most from the sanctions. Nevertheless, the Finnish government is trying to avoid suspicions that it is a weak link in Europe’s unified approach to Russian expansion in Ukraine. Niinistö stated that during the meeting with Putin, he wanted to build “everything that the Russians and Finns living on both sides of the border have.”
Putin and Niinistö agreed to make every effort to end the Ukrainian conflict. “We will do everything to end the military conflict as soon as possible, establish dialogue between interested parties and provide humanitarian assistance to those in need,” the Russian president said, according to the ITAR-TASS news agency. His Finnish counterpart added that the views of the Russian and Finnish sides on the delivery of humanitarian cargo to eastern Ukraine are identical.
Putin is concerned about the fighting
“We share serious concerns about the large-scale combat operation in southeastern Ukraine and the real humanitarian disaster that is taking place there,” Putin said. In an interview with a Finnish guest, Putin pointed out that the volume of trade between the two countries fell by eight percent last year. The reason is said to be not only economic factors, but also changing political conditions. Niinistö agreed that as a result of the Ukrainian crisis, the two countries were “in a new situation”.
Today’s Finland-Russia summit in Sochi was Putin’s first meeting on Russian soil with a senior EU politician since the February Olympics in Sochi. Niinistö had previously warned that he would not come to Russia as a mediator in the dispute between Moscow and Brussels. He said he still wanted to try to open lines of communication.
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