Finland’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs has not received any new explanations or reasons for why Russia expelled forestry expert Kalevi Kyyrönen, who had been working at the Finnish Embassy in Moscow.
Kyyrönen returned to Finland after the Russian security service FSB had given him two weeks to leave the country.
The FSB said that the action was a countermeasure for the expulsion of a Russian diplomat from Finland last spring. The diplomat had been caught for bribing a Finnish police officer.
The Finnish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that no further explanations were expected.
“The matter is over and done with from Finland’s point of view”, said section chief Petri Tuomi-Nikula.
Kyyrönen’s expulsion is the second case in which Russia openly says that it was responding to an expulsion by Finland.
The first was last year, when a Finnish police liaison officer was told to leave St. Petersburg.
Each year there are cases in which Russians have been urged to leave Finland. The matters are generally dealt with discreetly: a Russian official caught engaging in espionage, or trying to recruit a Finn, is summoned to the Security Police (SUPO), where he or she is urged to leave the country. Usually the cases are not made public.
Speculation at the Foreign Ministry is that Kyyrönen was chosen because he has been in Russia for more than 20 years, and he knows the forest sector thoroughly.
