Finland's intelligence service says Russia may blackmail the country with hostages

The large prisoner swap between the West and Russia in early August could set a precedent that would encourage Russia to continue blackmailing Western countries using hostages, and this could also threaten Finland.

Source: Petteri Lalu, Senior Analyst at the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (SUPO), in a comment to Finnish news agency STT

Details: Lalu noted that Finns who are in Russia or travelling to it might become prisoners whom Moscow could use as hostages.

Quote: "Russia is an authoritarian state that uses hostage diplomacy to release people important to it from prison. We have a recent example from early August. This is a real phenomenon, and the threat also concerns Finns in Russia." 

More details: One of the prisoners in Finland who may be of interest to the Russians as part of a swap may be Vojislav Torden of the neo-Nazi group Rusich, who was detained at Helsinki airport in July 2023.

Torden is under investigation by the Finnish Central Criminal Police on suspicion of war crimes committed in Ukraine in 2014-2015.

"If Torden is as important to the Russian leadership as the people who were brought back to Russia in the August prisoner swap, then I, for one, see no reason why Russia should not use hostage diplomacy against Finland," says Lalu.

Background: As part of a major swap between Russia and the West on 1 August, Moscow handed over 16 prisoners, including both Western citizens and Russian political prisoners, and received eight convicted spies in return.

Support UP or become our patron!