Russia remains biggest threat to Finland’s national security, - intelligence services
The Finnish Security Police (Supo) believes that the Russian Federation remains the most serious threat to the country’s national security.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by Yle.
According to the Finnish Security Police, the threat of Russian espionage and attempts to influence remains high, although the operational capabilities of Russian special services have weakened.
The Finnish agency is also confident that the country's accession to NATO has had a positive impact on the situation.
In addition, Supo's acting head Teemu Turunen does not rule out that in the future, individual Finnish citizens in Russia may face various measures of pressure, including espionage charges or asset confiscation.
"Authoritarian regimes have a ruthless 'hostage diplomacy' in their arsenal, aimed at exchanging prisoners," Turunen said.
He also believes that Russia may try to influence decision-making in Finland.
At the same time, the local Russian-speaking population, according to SUPO, does not pose a major threat to Finland's security.
The security police stated that the risk that Finnish Russians will have any significant impact on Finnish society is quite small.
SUPO also added that the threat of terrorist attacks in Finland has not increased. The most likely threat of a terrorist attack continues to come from individuals or small groups that support extreme right-wing or radical Islamist ideology.
The security police have already identified some extremists who have travelled from Finland to the war zone in Ukraine. Some of them have already returned home.
