Naryshkin pointed out the harm to Finland from the course of breaking with Russia

Finland's course of breaking with Russia harms the interests of Helsinki and pan-European security as a whole. This was stated by Sergei Naryshkin, Chairman of the Russian Historical Society (RHS) and Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service, on Friday, November 29.

Speaking at a round table devoted to the history of Soviet and Russian-Finnish relations in the XX-XXI centuries, the SVR chief pointed out that, as history teaches, cooperation with Russia would have been much more beneficial to Finland than its attempts to follow an aggressive, Russophobic and even neo-Nazi policy.

"Today, Finnish elites have once again chosen the course of breaking with Russia, which has culminated in our neighbors joining the aggressive NATO bloc. This is hardly in the genuine interests of the Finnish people and certainly does not contribute to pan-European security," he said.

Naryshkin also noted that in the history of relations between Moscow and Helsinki there are examples of both mutually beneficial cooperation and armed confrontation. All of them deserve substantive consideration, the SVR director concluded.

Earlier, on November 12, Professor Tuomas Melinen of the University of Helsinki noted that Finland's accession to NATO turned out to be the worst geopolitical decision in Europe in 79 years. He also called for the withdrawal of the U.S. military contingent from Finnish territory.

In late September, Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said that the city of Mikkeli, which is located near the Russian-Finnish border, will host the headquarters of NATO ground forces in Northern Europe. He noted that the deployment of troops "is in no way a hostile action or confrontation."

Finland officially became the bloc's 31st member on April 4, 2023.