Nikolay Malishevski: Finland, A Terrorist Haven!

Finnish officials started to interact with Chechen terrorists as far back as 1999. Rene Nyberg, a high standing official from the Finnish Foreign Ministry, first met Chechen representatives at the Helsinki EU summit by the end of 1999. When the criminal gangs of Basayev and Khattab invaded Dagestan from the territory of Chechnya, and then launched a string of bomb attacks across the territory of Russia from Volgodonsk to Moscow, the Northern Dimension European Union initiative, worked out by Finland's Foreign Ministry in November 1998, entered the phase of practical implementation. The initiative is targeted at drastic changes, related to defining the borders with Russia and encompasses Karelia, the Karelian Isthmus, the islands of the Finnish Gulf and Novgorod region, bringing all these territories into the Finnish sphere of interests. Finland plans to invest around 80 billion dollars into the program till 2020. In the summer of 2002, the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) had to issue an admonition seriously warning Finland about brazen anti-Russian propaganda activities. But it was not followed, the activities went on. Some time later, the terrorist Internet media outlet started to function in Helsinki with the Finish authorities consent. In April 2013, the Guardian wrote, This call to global jihad may perhaps offer a motive for an attack inside the US. As perhaps were trips back to Caucasus by the two bombing suspects. The new generation of twenty something rebels is also exploiting a powerful new weapon, the internet. The main Chechen rebel website, kavkazcenter.com, posts reports from the jihadist movement worldwide: from Syria, where Chechen diaspora fighters are battling government forces in Aleppo, from Pakistan, and from Turkey. Antero Leitzinger Helsinki: the one hand with amazement and admiration because of the enormous bravery and determination shown by the Chechnyan freedom fighters in an unequal struggle, but at the same time, with deep grief and distress because of the human sufferings caused by this war. We Finns know from our own experiences during the first decades of this century and WW II, that a nation defending its liberty against a great power is often left alone in the hours of need. Why doesn't the world help? Don't they know? Such questions are just and human, they were asked by our people in 1899, 1917 and 1939, and in our hearts we can very well feel you asking us the same now. Therefore, I wanted to assure you by publishing this book, that you haven't been forgotten by the outside world, that the Finnish nation is closely watching your heroic struggle, and that we too are joining you in our prayers to God for granting you victory, peace and independence, which you truly have earned at such high sacrifices!