The Finnish Ministry of Defence reported on Friday that a foreign aircraft violated Finnish airspace in the Gulf of Finland earlier in the day. The plane, believed to be a Russian Tupolev Tu-134 troop transporter, strayed about one kilometre into Finnish airspace.
Finland submitted a diplomatic note to Russia in late May after a series of violations of Finnish airspace in previous months by planes flying between St. Petersburg and the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad.
This time, the Finnish government wants to clear up the issue with Russia and avoid the political controversy that the previous cases raised.
Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja (SDP) said on Saturday that he believes that the incident was the result of carelessness and navigational error. He did not believe that any deliberate provocation was involved, noting that such a move would be inconceivable immediately after the recent visit to Finland by President Vladimir Putin.
President Tarja Halonen expressed irritation at the latest incident. During a visit to Tammisaari in the southwest of Finland on Sunday, Halonen said that the matter is being cleared up among Russian and Finnish civil servants, and not by politicians.
Russian Air Force spokesman Aleksandr Drobyshevski denied in a statement to Interfax that any Russian Air Force planes had been flying in the area at the time of the alleged incident.
Finland’s Minister of Defence Seppo Kääriäinen (Centre) said nevertheless that the violation was undeniable.
Russia also officially denied the previous set of airspace violations. However, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov had promised Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (Centre) that Russia had already changed its procedures to make sure that similar violations do not happen again.
