The Russian Ministry of Defense’s presentation on changing the maritime borders of the Baltic Sea sparked a lively debate on Wednesday.
Vilma Romsi,
Heikki Heiskanen
13:57•Updated 15:32
Russia’s possible plan to change its maritime borders in the Baltic Sea started a fierce news day on Wednesday.
In this story, we go through how the events regarding the plan published on the Russian government’s website progressed. We also tell you what the plan and its publication might have been about.
If you want, you can also watch the most important points of the story in the video of journalist Aliisa Ristmere.
This is how events unfolded
Several Russian media reported late on Tuesday about a document published on the website of the Russian government, according to which the Russian Ministry of Defense proposes to the government the transfer of maritime borders in the Baltic Sea in the vicinity of Finland and Lithuania.
On Wednesday after noon, the document disappeared from the website of the Russian administration. The documentary disappeared from the pages after a “military-diplomatic source” had denied the transfer of borders to Russian news agencies.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the issue by saying that the Ministry of Defense’s presentation does not involve any political aspirations.
Russia has not informed Finland in advance of the plan regarding maritime borders. The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday that it would investigate the matter.
1. Possibly pure damage
The presentation of the maritime border on the website of the Russian government and the resulting confusion could have been a pure accident, according to the hybrid influence experts interviewed by .
It is fundamentally unclear what kind of definition of areas was even intended in the presentation of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Experts consider it possible that it could have been the usual recalculation of Russia’s internal territorial water boundaries. This would be permissible in terms of the UN Convention on the Sea, and it would not affect Finland’s borders. This is different from moving maritime borders, which is not possible unilaterally.
Ylen’s Moscow correspondent can be behind the covert and contradictory communication of the matter Heikki Heiskanen to be an internal cross-behavior of the Russian administration. With its presentation, the Ministry of Defense has been able to step on the property and toes of another authority.
Director of the Alexander Institute of the University of Helsinki Markku Kangaspuro according to it is possible that the document was uploaded to the Russian administration’s website as part of a standard bureaucratic process without any forethought about its political implications.
According to Kangaspuro, it is part of Russian culture that mistakes are not apologized for or corrected.
2. Also a hybrid operation as an alternative
On Wednesday, the possibility was also brought up that it would be Russia’s hybrid influence.
Russia wants to cause tensions in the Baltic Sea and create cracks in the existing security order. With the maritime border document, it has been able to test how Finland and NATO react, the deputy director of the Estonian International Defense Research Center ICDS Kristi Raik said on Wednesday.
Also a researcher at the Foreign Policy Institute Jyri Lavikainen saw a political motive from Russia in the situation. He says that under normal circumstances, Russia would not go on unilateral checks of territorial borders, which Finland would only find out about from the administration’s website.
– Even if it is a small matter, Russia tries to cause problems, Lavikainen estimates.
This is how Lavikainen and Raik assessed the situation on Ylen Aamu on Thursday:
Lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä, expert in hybrid influence Panu Moilanen points out that even if it was just an accident, it could have been a happy accident for Russia.
– Yes, this would have been successful in a certain way, a hybrid operation born by chance, because it has received so much attention in Finland.
According to Moilanen, the fact that Russia did not inform Finland or Lithuania about its planned inspection may be due to the fact that the relations between the two countries are frozen due to Russia’s military actions.
3. This is how the Russian leadership commented on the events
Member of Parliament of the State Duma Yevgeny Fyodorov said Wednesday night for RTVI television, that the presentation was withdrawn so that the cartographers could further refine the information. The presentation will then be returned to the government’s online portal.
On Thursday, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova said that the presentation made by the Russian Ministry of Defense on the inspection of Russia’s maritime borders in the Gulf of Finland is technical in nature.
Zaharova answered a question from a Helsingin Sanomat correspondent at her weekly press conference. Zaharova said that coverage in both Russian and Western media has distorted the show and has not been entirely factual.
The media should follow Russia
The news about Russia’s maritime border document may have seemed big on Wednesday.
However, the task of the news media is to closely monitor Russia’s movements in the changed security policy environment. For this reason, it is necessary to tell about the document concerning Finland’s borders, as well as about other world political twists.
Updated on 23/05/2024 at 15:07: Marija Zaharova’s comment added.
Updated 23/05/2024 at 15:32: Added Fyodorov’s comment.