Posts Tagged ‘Finland’
OSCE Civil Society Forum
These days I took part in OSCE Civil Society Forum. It was held in Helsinki in connection to the ministerial meeting that’s planned for Thursday and Friday. Representatives of dozens of NGOs as well as OSCE officers participated in the event. I addressed them at the opening plenary yesterday:
…I recall what I did at this very day a year ago. It was an election day but for me it was marked by another arbitrary arrest. Just seconds after I commented the elections to an foreign TV channel in the heart of Moscow, I was literally dragged into a police van, threatened and beaten by several anonymous officers. Then they brought me to a police station, held there for a few hours and released without any charges.
Notes from Helsinki
I’m in Helsinki, invited by the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum, on a mission to establish contacts with the Finnish NGOs and policy makers. I’ve already had successful meeting with three of local political parties, Left Alliance, The Greens, and Swedish People’s Party, as well as with students of University of Helsinki and with officers of Foreign Ministry. A roundtable discussion in Helsinki Press Club will open in an hour.
Finland has always been particularly sensitive about Russia’s issues, the reason is obvious–the long history of Russian colonization of Finland and of Soviet domination. So, many Finns are remarkably well aware of the situation in Russia but at the same time many of them seem scared to do something about it. They don’t want to be left alone, tête à tête with their huge and unpredictable neighbor.
