“I would like to urge my European colleagues to follow in our footsteps as Finns: go to the sauna, take a dip in an ice hole and stay calm,” President Alexander Stubb said.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb has dismissed concerns and cautions issued in Sweden and other countries that Russia is set to test Nato’s Article 5 soon, according to Hufvudstadsbladet.
Article 5 is Nato’s mutual defence clause, which says that an armed attack on one member is considered an attack on all of its members.
But according to Stubb, Russia doesn’t have such plans, saying that it is rather a case of hybrid operations, HBL reported.
According to the paper, a number of warnings have been issued about the potential of Russian attacks on the alliance.
Intelligence experts and military officials in a number of European countries have warned that Russia is preparing a military operation in a small part of Europe in an aim to break up Nato.
In an interview with Hufvudstadsbladet, the Finnish president said he did not agree with the experts’ words of warning.
“I fundamentally disagree. Russia’s aim is to unbalance Europe and European countries. Part of this hybrid operation is to get Europeans themselves to warn of a Russian attack,” Stubb said, adding that as president and commander-in-chief, “I see no evidence that this is happening”.
The paper noted that as president, Stubb has access to the most intelligence information in Finland, receiving regular updates from various intelligence agencies.
It said the warnings about Russia have come from Sweden’s Armed Forces Defence Chief Micheal Claesson, among others. But Stubb said those alerts are unfounded.
“I would like to urge my European colleagues to follow in our footsteps as Finns: go to the sauna, take a dip in an ice hole and stay calm. We keep our heads cool – and mind you, we are the ones who have the border with Russia. We will manage,” Stubb said.
Threats prompt MP to move
Member of Parliament Ville Kaunisto (NCP) was prompted to move his family out of their house due to threats he received at the beginning of last year, Iltalehti reported, citing regional paper Kouvolan Sanomat.
It said that Kaunisto received threats to his life and health on a number of communication platforms and even on the street.
Kaunisto’s children were still preschoolers at the time, and according to Kouvolan Sanomat, his wife felt they were not safe.
The threats resulted in the MP being placed under protective surveillance.
Kaunisto told KS he decided to sell the family’s detached house in Kouvola and move to an apartment, to reduce the risks of a “fool’s whim”.
Fixing a bridge
Helsinki’s new Kruunuvuori Bridge officially opened to the public on a festive Saturday in April.
It became Finland’s longest bridge and is also thought to be the longest bridge in the world exclusively serving pedestrians, cyclists and, eventually, trams (in early 2027).
According to Ilta-Sanomat, the city has announced that the bridge will undergo maintenance work during July and August.
The city said that the bridge would be shut down during the entire night on 21 July, during the day on 8 August and again throughout the night of 25 August.
Not long after the bridge opened, city workers started putting up signs warning cyclists about dangerous bumps that had caused at least one accident.
Workers are scheduled to carry out tests on the massive structure — as well as repair the bridge’s expansion joints that caused the bumps.
According to Ilta-Sanomat, Crown Bridges Light Rail, the firm behind the bridge’s construction, admitted to making an error regarding the expansion joints in terms of the cycle path.
The paper said that apart from the unanticipated expansion joint repairs, the rest of the work was already planned when it opened in April.
However, the city said that work could only begin until a protection period for archipelago bird breeding in the area has come to an end.
