Kalev Stoicescu ⟩ Russia's propaganda treating Finland like Ukraine before full-scale aggression

Kalev Stoicescu Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

• The St. Petersburg City Court found Finland guilty of «genocide» as early as in October 2022.
• Moscow aims to lay propagandist groundwork for potential aggression in the Nordic-Baltic region.

Yury Dmitriev, aged 68, was arrested in his apartment in Petrozavodsk in December 2016, accused of taking nude photos of his stepdaughter. Dmitriev's real crime was investigating Stalinist repressions and mapping execution sites, chairman of the national defense committee Kalev Stoicescu (Estonia 200) writes.

He had been head of the Karelia branch of the Memorial Society from 2014. He uncovered the first mass grave of those executed by the NKVD near Petrozavodsk in the summer of 1988. Subsequently, other horrific sites were discovered. Before Dmitriev's arrest, the Karelia branch of Memorial published data on tens of thousands of individuals related to the repressions.

This was far too much for Putin's regime. Moscow had already started a bloody war against Ukrainian «fascism» in February 2014. Putin's state power and propaganda were already at the time vigorously purging history books and textbooks of Stalinist crimes. Dmitriev's activities were naturally unacceptable to the Kremlin. Let us not forget, this was just the beginning of the crackdown.

Moscow launches propaganda attack

Now, amid Russia's aggression and horrific war crimes, Moscow has launched an attack, as the best defense is a good offense, according to comrades. In fact, the St. Petersburg City Court had already found Finland guilty of «genocide» as early as in October 2022, as a participant in the siege of Leningrad (1941–1944). This move was clearly in response to Finland's political shift and application for NATO membership.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Karelia made a similar ruling last Thursday. Finland was accused of committing «genocide» in the «occupied territories,» mainly in Eastern Karelia, which eventually became part of the Soviet Union and is now part of Russia. The Supreme Court of Karelia made its decision at the request of Russia's Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, whose office produced documents allegedly referring to archival materials and witnesses. Germany and its «collaborator» Finland allegedly killed about 8,000 civilians and 18,000 prisoners of war in over a hundred concentration camps in the Republic of Karelia. Comments are obviously superfluous.

The Russian prosecutor general does not stop there. He adds that the economic damage to the Republic of Karelia amounts to 232 billion US dollars (20 trillion rubles). This is quite a funny claim, as the GDP of Karelia, with a population of half a million, is currently not more than four billion dollars annually... Meanwhile, Russia has also made official demands to Germany for «genocide» in the Moscow region (1941–1942), demanding 6.4 trillion rubles, about a third of the demand made to Finland.

It can be assumed that Finland and Germany do not intend to take Russia's demands seriously. Moreover, Finland has paid significant reparations to the Soviet Union, and the matter was settled in the peace treaty signed in Paris in 1947. Under the same treaty, Germany paid reparations to Moscow, including many machine factories that were fully relocated to Russia.

Personal intermezzo

I enrolled in the Faculty of Mathematics of the University of Tartu in 1983, but the following year, like all my male colleagues, I had to go to the Soviet army. The alternative options were a mental hospital, escape, or prison. After a few months of training around Leningrad, I was transferred to an infantry division in Karelia (apparently still there). I spent two years in Sortavala and Lahdenpohja, which belonged to Finland until the end of the Winter War and during the Continuation War.

I lived in barracks built during the Finnish era, which stood strong and stoic. It could be said with certainty that the buildings, bridges, and everything else constructed in those cities during the Finnish era were beautiful and stood the test of time well, but the ugly structures built by the orcish «liberators» were falling apart almost everywhere.

Occasionally, while on city patrol, I had the opportunity to visit a real barber. An intelligent lieutenant – an English philologist from Leningrad University – kindly gave permission. The barber was a retired Russian woman who told me she was one of the first civilians (colonists) brought to Karelia from Russia when the Finns were forced to leave. A total of half a million Finns fled Eastern Karelia. The Russian woman remembered that she immediately got a warm and comfortable apartment in a beautiful house, fully furnished, with a warm pot of soup on the stove and the table set. The cupboards were filled with beautiful clothes and shoes. And Russia is the one talking about ethnic cleansing and genocide...

The root of the issue lies in Finland and Germany shifting their political course

Finland, like Germany, fundamentally changed its official stance towards Russia only after Russia's full-scale aggression began against Ukraine. Finland's former president Sauli Niinistö had been meeting with Russia's dictator Putin at least once a year since 2012, and their phone conversations had been quite frequent. Similarly, Germany had remained faithful to its 50-year-long Ostpolitik until the very last moment, which turned out to be wrong.

Finland and Germany changing their political course, including Finland (and Sweden) joining NATO, is particularly painful for Moscow. Putin's Russia is committing horrific war crimes in Ukraine, facing accusations of genocide, and failing to influence Western decisions regarding the use of Russia's frozen assets to compensate for the damage caused to Ukraine. Therefore, they have launched a new propaganda attack, accusing specifically selected countries – Finland and Germany – of the same crimes that Russia is currently committing.

Russia does not expect these accusations and demands to be taken seriously in Helsinki, Berlin, or enywhere else in the West, but that is not the real goal. Moscow's aim is to lay propagandist groundwork for potential use of force or aggression in the Nordic-Baltic region. Just as it did before February 24, 2022, when its orcs attacked Ukraine. It is not ruled out that Iran may attack Israel, and the latter in turn may respond against Iran and Lebanon. And thus, another major war would begin. Of course, with Moscow's approval, which is very interested in escalating tensions and crisis hotspots. It is all grist for its mill.

A secondary goal is to appeal to the dwindling number of «Russia sympathizers» in the West and other political Russophiles, trying to demonstrate that Western countries are no more virtuous than Russia and make it seem like a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black.

Finally, we must be prepared that Putin's Russia will make similar accusations and demands to Estonia and other Baltic states, as well as Poland and other opponents of the aggression. After all, they «liberated» Estonia in 1940 and 1944, bringing us culture, economic development, and much more. This is how they think and will continue to think. Unfortunately.