The Russian court in Karelia recognized as "war crimes and genocide of the Soviet people" the actions of Finland in Karelia during the Second World War, when it tried to return the territories captured by the USSR.
Points of attention
- The court in Karelia accused Finland of war crimes and genocide of the Soviet people during the Second World War, relating to actions taken in Karelia to regain territories from the USSR.
- Finnish historians criticize Russia for not utilizing available Finnish documents in the investigation, questioning the validity of the claims made by the Russian authorities.
- Former director of the National Archives of Finland argues that demanding a re-examination of historical events after over 80 years is inappropriate and underscores the openness of Finnish historical records compared to classified Soviet documents.
- The alleged violation of Finnish airspace by a Russian military aircraft further strains relations between the two countries, with Finnish Defense Minister expressing seriousness and launching an immediate investigation.
- The controversy surrounding the accusations of war crimes between Russia and Finland highlights the complexities of historical narratives and the importance of transparent historical research.
In Russia, history is being rewritten again
Russian propagandists from the TASS news agency informed the court about this decision.
The Supreme Court of the Republic of Karelia decided to recognize "war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide of the Soviet people, the discovered and newly discovered crimes committed by the German-fascist invaders, the occupying power and the troops of Finland on the territory of the Karelo-Finnish SSR" during the Second World War.
With this decision, the court satisfied the statement of the prosecutor of Karelia Dmytro Kharchenkov in its entirety.
We are talking about the period from the fall of 1941 to June 1944, during the so-called Continuation War, when Finland, after the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, tried to return the territories that it was forced to cede to Moscow after the Winter War of 1939-1940, and went beyond the borders of 1939 .
In the prosecutor's statement, Finland was blamed for the deaths of prisoners of war and civilians in camps in Soviet Karelia, a total of 8,000 civilians and more than 18,000 prisoners of war.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation raised this issue back in 2020, when it initiated a study of declassified Soviet documents regarding Finnish prisoner-of-war camps in Karelia. Finnish historians then connected such initiatives of Russia with the Kremlin's political goals.
The former director of the National Archives of Finland, Jussi Nuorteva, after the Karelian prosecutor's office initiated such a review, commented to Ilta-Sanomat that Finland has nothing to hide in this historical episode and that all Finnish documents are freely available, while the Soviet ones are mostly classified.
But Russia, for some reason, does not use this information (from Finnish archives — ed.), but makes its own statements that do not always have anything to do with reality. For example, the estimated number of dead is overestimated by about two times, and others have no way to assess what these numbers are based on... With a totalitarian state, you cannot have thorough discussions about history, and you cannot take Russia's new claims against Finland seriously.
Yussi Nuorteva
Former director of the National Archives of Finland
He also recalled that after the end of the war, the Allies under the leadership of the USSR created the Control Commission for Finland, which presented the country with a series of demands, including the trial of war criminals, so it is inappropriate to demand a re-examination of the same events after more than 80 years.
The Russian plane was in Finnish airspace for about 2 minutes
On June 10, a Russian military aircraft allegedly violated the airspace in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland.
This is reported by YLE with reference to the Ministry of Defense of the country.
The alleged violation occurred in the morning of June 10 in the Loviysu area.
The plane was in Finnish airspace for about two minutes.
We take the alleged violation (of airspace, — ed.) seriously,” Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkiänen said, adding that an investigation had been launched immediately.
It is noted that the border service is responsible for investigating cases of border violations.
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