Finland’s foreign affairs ministry characterised the situation as serious and says it is looking into the matter.
Russia has frozen the bank accounts of Finnish embassies in Russia, Finland’s foreign ministry has confirmed.
The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs confirmed on Wednesday that the bank accounts belonging to Finnish embassies in Russia have been frozen and cannot be accessed.
The incident was first reported by daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (siirryt toiseen palveluun).
Finland has been in contact with Russian authorities about the matter, the paper reported.
“The situation is serious and the matter is being investigated,” the ministry’s communication arm told the paper by email.
Foreign affairs minister Pekka Haavisto (Green) told reporters at a press conference later on Wednesday that the ministry has been in contact with Russia about the matter at the beginning of this month.
Haavisto said many questions remained to be answered, while that the bank accounts belonging to the Finnish Embassy in Moscow and the Consulate General’s office in St Petersburg have been frozen.
He said that Finland sent its message about the situation to Russian authorities at the beginning of this month.
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö told news agency STT that the freezing of the embassies’ bank accounts significantly exceeds restrictions that Finland has placed on the use of money by members of the Russian Embassy in Helsinki.
Niinistö made the comments in Reykjavik, Iceland on Wednesday, as he arrived for the second day of the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe.
Niinistö characterised the bank account freezing as an excessive reciprocal measure by Russia.
The Finnish president said that Finland needs to carefully consider how to secure operations of Finland’s Embassy in Moscow and the Consulate General’s office in St Petersburg.
Edited at 13:01 to add Haavisto and Niinistö’s comments.
Would you like a roundup of the week’s top stories in your inbox every Thursday? Then sign up to receive our weekly email.
