Finland has officially been the 31st member of NATO since April. The accession process, which was accelerated by developments in the Ukraine war, lasted less than a year. A Russian intervention in Finland would now be seen as an attack on all NATO countries – the Russian Foreign Ministry sharply condemned the accession.
After joining NATO, the Åland archipelago on the southwest coast of Finland now also wants to get rid of the Russian consulate that has been on one of the islands since 1940. Background: Espionage is suspected.
The Finnish province consists of over 6700 islands, of which only 60 are inhabited. The archipelago has around 30,000 inhabitants and has been demilitarized since 1856, which means that no military units are allowed to be stationed there.
The Russian consulate in Marienhamn, the most populous city in Åland, goes back to an agreement between Finland and the former Soviet Union and served to “monitor the demilitarization” of the islands. However, concerns about the Russian consulate have been raised since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
Finland: Protests against a Russian island consulate
“In the beginning there was a protest in front of the consulate every day at five. Now there are still posters. Times are difficult right now. There is actually no longer any reason to have contacts,” Petra Granholm told Deutschlandfunk in 2022. She works for a Finnish NGO diagonally across from the consulate.
Only the Russian consul and his wife live in the house, reports Roger Nordlund, Vice President of the Åland Parliament. During the Cold War there were many more people in the consulate, but that was a long time ago. Nordlund wondered if the consulate could not slowly disappear from the island, but that was solely the Finnish state’s decision.
The “FAZ” reports that the situation has become even more tense since Finland joined NATO. Not only do they want the consulate to be closed, there are also voices in Parliament calling for a reassessment of the demilitarization of the Åland Islands. The province has a strategically important location in the Baltic Sea region. Shipping routes and data cables pass in close proximity to the islands.
“Part of the Russian espionage system”
With an online petition, the Finns want to ensure that the consulate is finally closed. “Since Finland is now a member of NATO, this consulate endangers Finland’s security,” it said. More than 28,000 votes have been collected since the beginning of April. From 50,000 signatures, the issue will be discussed in the Finnish Parliament.
The agency is only “part of the Russian espionage system in Finland,” says former Finnish diplomat Alpo Rusi. He was a former adviser to the president and cites a major crackdown on Russian citizens in 2018.
Some Russians have bought large plots of land in Finland and provided them with jetties and heliports – suspiciously close to important shipping routes. The Russian consulate was involved in this business, Rusi claimed to the “FAZ” and called for the agency to be closed as soon as possible.
Åland would actually prefer to be Swedish
Assessing the matter is complicated. Originally, Åland was part of the Kingdom of Sweden along with Finland, but became part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 when Sweden was forced to cede Finland and Åland to the Russian Empire.
In 1856, after the end of the Crimean War, it was decided to demilitarize Åland. When Finland declared its independence in 1917, the archipelago wanted to rejoin Sweden.
To avoid a looming conflict between Sweden and Finland, the newly formed League of Nations granted Finland sovereignty over Åland in 1921. In return, Finland had to undertake to guarantee the population their Swedish culture, language, customs and self-government. To this day, most residents speak Swedish.
“The Achilles Heel of Finnish Defence”
Due to its central location in the Baltic Sea and its proximity to the Swedish and Finnish mainland, the island plays a strategically important role. “This is the Achilles’ heel of Finnish defense,” warned former presidential adviser Alpo Rusi 2022 in an interview with the news agency “AFP”. “There is concern that in the event of a sudden attack on Aland, Finland might not be able to respond quickly enough militarily.”
The demilitarization of the archipelago has already been clarified three times. If this decision were now unilaterally reversed and soldiers stationed on the islands, this could send a hostile signal to Russia, experts fear.
Mats Löfström, MP for the Åland Center Party, told the FAZ that compliance with multilateral agreements is “vital for survival” for a small country like Finland. The island is adequately protected even without militarization, especially since the obligation to provide assistance through NATO accession.
