President Halonen understands Putin’s sharp stand on Anton Salonen case

Presidents spoke “very little” about gas pipeline project

print this

Finnish President Tarja Halonen says that she understands the sharp view taken by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on the activities of a Finnish diplomat in the child custody case of Anton Salonen.
      The diplomat hepled smuggle Anton - the son of a Finnish father and Russian mother - out of Russia, where the mother had taken him last year.
     
Putin sharply criticised the actions taken by the diplomat, saying that they “harmed trust between the countries”. He commented on the matter during his visit to Finland on Wednesday.
      “It was not surprising at all. The Vienna Treaty is a very important matter, and I think that it was not just a Russian reaction; it would be the reaction of any country in a debate that has become a public one.”
      The Vienna Treaty sets the ground rules for the operations of international diplomacy.
     
President Halonen said that talks on the case of Anton Salonen led to a discussion on the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction, which Russia has not signed. Halonen said that Putin showed positive interest toward the convention, but did not promise that Russia would sign it.
      Would the dispute become a national competition of the kind that Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen warned about on Wednesday?
      “I hope that it will not. I hope that our long discussion assured them that if there had been official agreement on the procedure, it certainly would have been done differently.”
      She emphasised that she respects traditional diplomacy, and Putin’s thinking on the matter:
      “It is a pertinent question - what good would it be to join the Convention on Child Abduction if the other side does not respect the Treaty of Vienna?” Halonen said.
     
Halonen emphasised her good relations with Putin: as the two were well acquainted with each other, their discussions lasted two and a half hours, and not just an hour as planned.
      “I have learned to know Putin, when he began as Prime Minister and I was Foreign Minister in 1999. He gave me permission to go to refugee camps on the border between Ingushetia and Chechnya to meet with Chechens, when we held the Presidency of the European Union. He had the courage to take that responsibility.”
     
Halonen encouraged Russia to take on a powerful role in fighting climate change.
      “I strongly encouraged him toward the thinking that climate change is also a Russian question, because it involves energy efficiency and alternate energy sources. He took up the subject of forest reserves himself.”
      Putin apparently referred to the ability of forests to tie down carbon dioxide.
     
The two spoke “very little” about the Baltic Sea gas pipeline project. The topic was primarily a “Putin monologue.”
      Halonen said that it is good that Prime Minister Vanhanen made it clear to Putin that the process of granting a permit takes time.
      “There is a view in many countries that these environmental questions are seen simply as political excuses”, Halonen said.
     
Also discussed during their meeting was the need to support the work of the European Court of Human Rights. Russia is the only member-state of the Council of Europe not to sign an additional protocol expected to speed up the handling of such cases.
      The Foreign Ministry says that 100,000 cases are waiting to be handled.
      The protocol would make it easier to weed out unnecessary cases at the outset. Putin did not take a stand on the matter.
      “Putin said straight out that they had received [ECHR] decisions that were not in accordance with their ideas of justice, but that they still need to be implemented and paid for.”
      Amnesty International says that Russia has received 100 negative decisions on human rights violations in Chechnya.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Putin denounces diplomat for helping smuggle Anton out of Russia (4.6.2009)
  Russian journalist says Putin turned Russia into “giant concentration camp” (3.6.2009)
  Finland replies to Russia’s diplomatic note over Anton custody dispute (29.5.2009)
  Assessment: limited impact of gas pipeline on Baltic Sea (10.3.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat