Archipelago raid not to impact Finnish-Russia relations

President Sauli Niinistö said on Monday the Finnish-Russian relations will not be affected by the major police raid on seventeen foreign owned properties in strategic locations in the archipelago in southwestern Finland.

Local media have reported that the real estate that were inspected over the weekend are largely of Russian ownership via companies in Finland and the rest of the EU.

Niinistö said, however, that he has been concerned for a long time about Russian purchase of real estate in strategically important areas in Finland.

Talking to the media in New York, he said he had been aware of the planned major investigation in the Turku archipelago "for a long time". Niinistö is in New York attending the UN general assembly.

The enterprise being investigated has not been identified by Finnish officials, due to the legal restrictions on naming suspects.

Niinistö declined to comment on whether the properties investigated should be expropriated. He said, however, that the state of Finland does not have expropriation rights in case the real estates were purchased many years ago. He said legislation should be updated so that comparable purchases should be looked into carefully in the future.

Earlier on Monday, Defense Minister Jussi Niinistö said a legislative reform on foreign ownership of militarily important areas will be submitted to parliament this autumn.

The comments of the Russian side are not available now.

Finnish police has detained one Russian and one Estonian citizen. The police investigation focused on tax fraud and money laundering. A Russian individual has been reported to be a key background person for the real estate project being investigated. He has not been identified. He is reportedly also a citizen of Malta.