Ex-President Koivisto denies Russia offered return of Karelia

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Former President Mauno Koivisto sharply denies reports and and rumours that Russia would have made an offer to Finland in 1991 or 1992 under which Finland could have bought back the parts of Karelia ceded to the Soviet Union at the end of the last war.
      He also denies claims in an article appearing last week in the newspaper Kainuun Sanomat that a price for such a return would have been calculated at the President's request by a secret group of experts.
      "No offers were made by the Soviet Union, or after that, by Russia, for re-examining the border, nor were there any proposals from Finland. No working groups were set up by me, and I do not know that any others would have done so either. There is no foundation to this", Koivisto said in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat at his home in Helsinki.
      Koivisto served as President of Finland from 1982 to 1994.
     
According to the news item in Kainuun Sanomat, the Finnish foreign policy leadership received a message from the administration of the Russian President in late 1991, and the matter was revisited in late January 1992.
      The Soviet Union was abolished in the interim.
      Koivisto said that he has no idea where the newspaper might have got its information.
      According to the article, the "group of experts" had estimated that the "purchase price of Karelia" would be 64 billion markka, or more than EUR 10 billion.
      "There was no working group, and no calculations. There could not have been any calculations. It is a question of both material, and psychological matters for which it is not possible to calculate a price. The whole idea that some kind of a sum of money should be arrived at is absurd", Koivisto said on Thursday.
     
Koivisto said that he took up the issue because it seems that others who are denying the report do not seem to be getting their message through. The Prime Minister at the time, Esko Aho (Centre) and Paavo Väyrynen (Centre), who was Foreign Minister at the time, have both said that they had not heard of any offer concerning Karelia. The matter was also came as a surprise to the current President Tarja Halonen.
      "The danger is that it [the alleged Karelia offer] will soon be in history textbooks", Koivisto said.
     
The former head of state said that he wanted to be brief, lest new ideas be developed from what he said.
      "Whatever is added to this always contains the danger that some loose end will be found that some people attempt to develop further."
      "For that reason I do not plan to say anything about journalistic morals, adhering to the truth, or responsibility in dealing with matters of national importance. I will simply note that if I can note, that this story was without foundation in other respects as well."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Report: Unofficial offers by Russia in 1991 to return ceded Karelia to Finland (16.8.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat