and continuing dialogue with Russia
Submitted by IWB, on June 22nd, 2016
“Sweden’s former defence minister, Karin Enström, criticised Niinistö’s decision to invite Russia’s president Putin to Finland this July…the former minister told the panel that “We in Sweden find [President Putin’s forthcoming visit] somewhat hard to understand,” adding: “We know Finland has a special relationship with Russia, but does the panel think the visit has a security benefit, or is it just for Russia relations with a small “R”?”
That prompted a strong-worded response from the President Niinistö who was not a member of the panel, but who still felt that the criticism was unfair. Especially since Karin – as an ex-minister – clearly carried a message from the highest Swedish leadership.
Now, I’ve never tried to hide my anti-Russian sentiment or that I consider the current Russian geopolitics a real threat to our country (and the Baltic states), but the President is right. We have a 1300 km border with Russia and our economy is strongly dependent on Russia. There’s no way we can start shunning or snubbing Russia, stop talking with them at the highest level, or to put up major sanctions against Russia.
During the Cold War, we were masters at handling the Soviet Union. We had more expertise and backchannel contacts than the entire west and their kremlinologists put together. We still have it.
The rule #1 is that the Russian mentality does not respond well to economic sanctions or the silent treatment. You talk with them, you toast and drink with them, and you make deals with them. Deal making means that you stand fast and stick to selected issues that are critical to you, and you compromise somewhere else. It’s essential to show backbone and that you don’t cave in to all their demands and/or threats. That earns you their respect. However, at the same time you can’t dictate or force issues and you can’t just take.
The long term fallacy in the west is that Russia only understands harsh words, sanctions and military strength. That’s blatantly wrong and provocative.
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