Alpo Rusi says Kalevi Sorsa was on Tiitinen’s list

The Finnish diplomat and former Presidentail aide Dr. Alpo Rusi says that Social Democratic Party veteran politician Kalevi Sorsa (1930-2004) was one of the names on the so-called Tiitinen List.
      The information came from a second-hand source, who is now dead, and Rusi has no documentary evidence to back the claim, which comes out in Rusi’s new book Tiitisen lista – Stasin vakoilu Suomessa 1960–1989 (“Tiitinen’s List Stasi Espionage in Finland 1960-1989”).
      Seppo Tiitinen, the former director of Finland’s Security Police (SUPO), who is now the Secretary-General of the Finnish Parliament, denies that Sorsa’s name would have been on the list.
      “I would have remembered if Kalevi Sorsa’s name had been there”, Tiitinen said in an interview with the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).
     
Tiitinen’s list is a list of 18 names acquired by SUPO in 1990. Those named on the list were suspected of having been in contact with a Stasi representative operating in Finland at one point. Tiitinen says that the list had been given to SUPO by the West German security service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst.
      In spite of its title, Rusi’s book does not contain the list itself. Instead, it mainly describes East German intelligence activities in Finland in the time period mentioned in the book’s title. It is Rusi’s opinion that the list actually has names of people who collaborated with the Soviet KGB and not the East Germans.
     
According to Rusi, the list is based on information given by a former Helsinki station chief of Stasi, who had defected to West Germany and was given immunity and a new identity in return for information. Part of that information was about contacts between Finnish citizens and the KGB, which operated in close cooperation with Stasi.
      Rusi himself faced suspicions of aggravated espionage in 2002, but the suspicions proved unfounded.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Ex-President Koivisto urges publication of Security Police Stasi list (3.9.2007)
  Court rejects Alpo Rusi call to publish Stasi lists (26.4.2007)
  Debate over disclosure of Stasi material heats up as Security Police director resigns (30.7.2007)

See also:
  Former President Ahtisaari testifies in Alpo Rusi case (29.8.2007)