Russian politicians

Russian President Vladimir Putin says his country’s nuclear weapons are ready. EPA/AOP

In a recent TV interview, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatens to move troops to the Finnish border.

– We haven’t had troops (at the Finnish border), but now there will be. There have been no weapon systems there, there will be in the future, he stated to Russia’s Rossiya-1 channel.

Putin practically repeated previous statements heard from Russia, which talked about strengthening the Western military circle. He mentioned the same thing recently, among other things, in his State of the Nation speech.

However, several experts have pointed out that Russia’s resources are currently tied up in Ukraine, and no concrete actions in the areas beyond the Finnish border are expected in the near future.

In the same context, Putin also belittled the NATO membership of Finland and Sweden. He also wondered why Finland and Sweden thought it necessary to join the defense alliance in general.

– This was an absolutely meaningless step from the point of view of securing the national interests of these countries, he said.

Nuclear weapons at the ready

During the interview, Putin also stated that “new threats from the West” require Russia to update its own situational picture. The propagandist Dmitri Kiselyov, who interviewed Putin, asked him, among other things, whether Russia is ready to use nuclear weapons.

– From a military-technical point of view, we are of course ready. Our nuclear forces are always ready to fight, he replied.

According to the Russian state-owned news agency Ria, Putin was also asked whether Russia could use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. Putin referred to Russia’s nuclear weapons doctrine, according to which Russia will use nuclear weapons if its existence is threatened.

However, Putin added a chilling note to the beginning of his answer.

– The weapons are there to be used. We have our own principles, he said.

– Our principles say that we are ready to use all weapons, including the weapons you mentioned, if it is about Russia’s existence or if Russia’s sovereignty or independence are threatened.

Putin points out that “everything is written down in our strategy” and this has not been changed. He added that the United States is also developing its own nuclear weapons forces.

– However, in my opinion, that does not mean that they are ready to start a nuclear war, he said.

From the Finnish ambassador Antti Helanterää no opposition leader was allowed To Alexei Navalny to the funeral, says MTV Uutiset.

Department head of the Eastern Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Marja Liivala tells MTV Uutis that Helanterä was supposed to participate in the funeral ceremony at the Borisov cemetery, but according to his own announcement, he was not allowed in the area.

According to Liivala, it is difficult to assess why Helanterä was not allowed to participate.

Finland’s ambassador to Moscow, Antti Helanterä, photographed in 2022. aop/kimmo lights up

Thousands of people

Navalny was buried today, Friday. Numerous sources have confirmed that even thousands of people followed the opposition leader’s funeral procession in Moscow.

The event has even been characterized as the largest gathering of the Russian opposition since Navalny’s imprisonment in 2021.

Some of the mourners have also expressed their opinion Vladimir Putin against the regime, despite the high risk of being arrested.

– Putin is a murderer! Russia without Putin! has been shouted in the crowd.

Leading researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Charly Salonius-Pasternak shrugged the other week with his unusual statement To Alexei Navalny regarding death.

– He was a Russian nationalist. It’s not worth wasting a single tear because of him, Salonius-Pasternak wrote in the message service X.

Iltalehti asked an ex-oligarch who visited Helsinki on Sunday, known as an opponent of Vladimir Putin From Mikhail Khodorkovsky view of Salonius-Pasternak’s commentary.

A Finnish researcher said that you shouldn’t cry, after all, Navalny was a Russian nationalist. How do you comment?

Khodorkovsky begins his answer by first appealing to the human side of Navalny’s death.

– In my opinion, you should always cry when any person is killed, regardless of whether he is a nationalist, a communist or a democrat. Basically, he is human.

In addition, Khodorkovsky highlights Navalny’s role as an exceptional politician.

– He was really brave as a person and acted in public as a politician very effectively, and it cannot be said that there are particularly many such people in Russia.

“Many positions”

Navalny was widely regarded as the brightest star of the Russian opposition. Navalnyi, who worked in the liberal opposition, also received criticism, especially in the early stages of his political career, for his nationalist and racist opinions.

Navalny was expelled from the liberal Jabloko party in 2007. The reason was his controversial comments on immigration and his decision to participate in the Russian far-right’s annual Russian March. Putin was also opposed in the march.

Last week, Putin’s opponent Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison, once participated in a Russian far-right march. EPA/AOP

Navalny also called for the deportation of illegal immigrants and visa requirements for people from Central Asia. He later apologized for his comments, which were interpreted as racist, but said he stood behind his positions. These included support for Russia’s war in Georgia in 2008.

Khodorkovsky sees Navalny more broadly than this.

– Navalny had many different positions during his life. People change, people develop.

Salonius-Pasternak explained his angry comment to Iltalehti for the first time on Monday. He repeated his position that considering Navalny to be the hope of a “new and different” Russia is a “delusion”.

– Of course, an individual like Alexei Navalny can be mourned. Of course, the torture and killing of Navalny by the Russian state must be condemned, the researcher elaborated.

Russia is what it is

According to Khodorkovsky, Russians who are on the liberal side and support democracy should understand that there is more to Russia.

– I try to tell all the ultra-liberals that Russia is what it is.

According to Khodorkovsky, there are a lot of people in Russia who have left-wing, communist-leaning views, and there are also a lot of nationalists.

– There are many people with democratic views, but not enough to crush the majority.

According to Khodorkovsky, all different groups should have their political representatives, and Navalny’s supporters got one Navalny’s widow Julija Navalnaya.

– Our task is just to learn to agree on things among ourselves and – what is especially important for you here – that Russia does not pose a threat to its neighbors.