Boris Yeltsin remembered as leader who promised to stop interfering in Finnish affairs
Finnish President Tarja Halonen joined other world leaders on Monday to extend condolences to the people of Russia over the death of former President Boris Yeltsin.
"Yeltsin was President of Russia at a time of great change – he could be said to have brought democracy to Russia and defended it in challenging circumstances", said President Halonen in a statement issued on Monday.
Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen noted that Yeltsin took control of the collapse of the Soviet Union in a way that spared the area from the fate of the West Balkans.
President Halonen also emphasised Yeltsin's important role in the development of relations between Finland and Russia.
"I want to say it straight, that on our side there was a real effort to interfere in the affairs of independent Finland. As the President of Russia I can say that such actions will never again overshadow relations between Russia and Finland", said Yeltsin during a visit to Finland in July 1992.
Arto Mansala, Secretary of State at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and a former Finnish Ambassador to Moscow sees the visit as a breakthrough in relations between Finland and Russia.
"Yeltsin was a very important person for Finland in 1992", says Mansala. Finland's "road to the West" became a fast one.
Yeltsin took part in a summit of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) in Helsinki in 1992, and stayed in Finland after the meeting for an official visit.
During the visit Yeltsin said that the dictatorship of Josif Stalin took Karelia from Finland. He also promised to open up secret archives, and signed a new state treaty between Finland and Russia. The symbolic climax of the meeting came when he laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Hietaniemi cemetery.
After the visit, the archives in Moscow did open up a crack, but not completely. There were no changes in the status of Karelia. As the years went on, more and more old interpretations of the war came from Russia, blaming Finland.
Undersecretary of State Markus Lyra at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs notes that "The Russian apparatus has not always been open to taking orders". Lyra has also served as the Finnish Ambassador in Moscow.
Contacts with Yeltsin continued, but there were more upheavals inside Russia. Mauno Koivisto met Yeltsin in 1993, before an attempted coup in Moscow, and President Martti Ahtisaari met him the following year, soon after taking office.
Yeltsin also came to Finland in 1997, for a summit meeting with US President Bill Clinton. Clinton was in a wheelchair because of a leg injury, but the real patient was Yeltsin, whose condition was seen by observers as very poor.
Lyra notes that Yeltsin's significance in areas near Finland was not limited to bilateral meetings.
In early 1991, as he was still the Prime Minister of Russia, Yeltsin signed the treaties that helped the Baltic States achieve independence later that year. Yeltsin's real aim might not have been full independence, so much as annoying Mikhail Gorbachev, who was still the leader of the Soviet Union at the time.
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 24.4.2007 - TODAY |
 Boris Yeltsin remembered as leader who promised to stop interfering in Finnish affairs |
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