Finland has appealed to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding an act of vandalism committed on 20 December at the Finnish embassy in Moscow’s Kropotkinsky Lane. In Helsinki, they urged to ensure the security of the diplomatic mission and its staff and to act in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
“Finland contacted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and requested that Russia take measures to ensure the safety of the Finnish embassy and its staff.”
– writes a newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.
According to the publication, on December 23, a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland personally met with employees of the Russian diplomatic department. There is no information about this on the website of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Attack with a sledgehammer
On December 20, a video began to circulate on social networks of unknown persons in masks running near the fence of the diplomatic mission and throwing sledgehammers on its territory.
Finnish diplomats later confirmed that the embassy in Moscow was indeed attacked at noon. No property damage was caused as a result of the incident, and no one was injured.
“Today we confirm that a hooligan action took place against the Finnish Embassy at around 12:00 Moscow time. The embassy told TASS that multiple sledgehammers were thrown from the street into the embassy’s courtyard.
A series of Telegram channels arguedIt was stated that the attack on the Finnish mission was “a response to provocations against the Russian diplomatic mission in Finland”.
“Provocations in Helsinki”
A few days before the action near the Finnish embassy in Helsinki landed Pegasus airline plane with Russian tourists. The plane was flying from Istanbul to Moscow, but due to snowfall had to land at the airport in the capital of Finland. Passengers, who were kept on a closed plane for more than 10 hours, were then sent back to Istanbul without being disembarked. All this time the Russians were not fed, several passengers complained that their health was deteriorating.
At the beginning of the month, another event occurred in Helsinki, which could theoretically provoke the organizers of the action with sledgehammers. On December 6, Finns celebrate Independence Day with festive processions. A group of participants defiantly burned The Russian flag involved in the incident and the Finnish capital’s police did not arrest the arsonists: the country’s legislation provides for any liability only for the destruction of the Finnish flag.
The Russian Foreign Ministry nevertheless demanded that the perpetrators be brought to justice and that “measures be taken to prevent such extremist games from now on” and the Russian Investigative Committee started confirmation of the event.
Sledgehammer became associated with Wagner PMC after a video appeared of the execution of former PMC fighter Yevgeny Nuzhin. In the recording, Nuzhin says that he “executed his plan to cross over to the Ukrainian side” on September 4 and was forcibly taken to “this basement” on November 11. Following these words, an unidentified person hits his head with a sledgehammer.
The Kremlin said they did not know how accurate the information about PMCs’ involvement in the execution was. Earlier, the European Parliament called on the EU to include PMC Wagner in its list of terrorist organisations.