COMMENT: A NATO opponent speaks out

print this

By Susanna Niinivaara in Moscow
     
      At a press conference last week I asked Russian President Vladimir Putin how possible Finnish membership in NATO would affect relations between Finland and Russia. Putin answered that it would not improve relations.
      It is clear that Putin's response would elicit a reaction in Finland. It would have been a topic of discussion no matter what his answer might have been.
      The reason is that when the subject of conversation in Finland turns to NATO, the real subject is Russia. And still it seems now and then that when experts (researchers, politicians, journalists specialised in security policy) discuss NATO, the tendency is to avoid using the word Russia.
      It is as if we were still living the days of the Cold War, Finlandisation, and the time when it was necessary to avoid talking about the eastern neighbour in clear words.
     
There has been an enthusiastic exchange of thoughts on the Helsingin Sanomat Internet message board. Reading them, it becomes clear that in the view of the Finnish people, when discussing prospective NATO membership, the specific subject on the table is Russia, and the military threat that it has posed in the past, present, and future.
      In my opinion the citizens are right. After all, it's not against Sweden that Finland wants security guarantees.
      One of the postings on the message board directed personally at me asked why a correspondent of Helsingin Sanomat asks Putin about NATO. It has been speculated that Helsingin Sanomat wants to either promote Finnish membership in NATO or to prevent it from happening.
      Helsingin Sanomat has declared that it supports Finnish NATO membership. This came out in a lead editorial in September 2004, and editor-in-chief Janne Virkkunen repeated the view in a column on the editorial page in October 2006. For this reason I can well understand the readers who have thought that the NATO question was carefully thought out in advance by the newspaper.
      But this was not the case.
     
I decided on my own in Moscow that this time I would try to ask Putin about NATO. I thought that Putin's views would be of interest to readers who ponder possible NATO membership.
      Contrary to what Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen speculated in his blog, Helsingin Sanomat was not seeking "permission" from Putin. I feel that it is as clear as day that Finland will make its decision on its application for NATO membership on its own.
     
I myself am opposed to Finnish membership in NATO. There are many reasons for this, but right now one reason is sufficient: I do not want to be in the same military alliance with the United States, whose illegal attack on Iraq has had consequences that are sad and infuriating to watch.
      The logical question that follows from my views is, how a journalist opposed to NATO membership can work at a newspaper that supports membership.
      The answer: it's easy, as long as I am allowed to inform readers about an opinion that differs from the newspaper's policy line.
      Let the debate continue!
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 6.2.2007


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Putin reiterates opposition to Finnish membership in NATO (2.2.2007)

SUSANNA NIINIVAARA / Helsingin Sanomat
susanna.niinivaara@hs.fi