"V.Y.Grin" is the deputy public prosecutor, not "V.Y. Grinn".  

We all look at each other, each country, and all we see are ourselves.

What really is, was?  Was it just a better lie then and revealed by someone with a different purpose now and for what purpose? 

It is very interesting that Russian foreign ministry sees human right problems in countries like Finland, but nothing to criticize in e.g. North Korea, Belarus or China which all have more or less one party system, no freedom of press and which all are well known to have political prisoners. But maybe this is not coincidence. Maybe North Korea, Belarus and China give us an example of the political system that Russian foreign ministry wishes to see in its neighbors and in Russia. Maybe you should write about that Juha?

It is not quite clear what the motives of Juha Molari are to support the toe-curling anti-Finnish propaganda campaign started by the Russian Foreign Ministry and advanced by the RT. Most probably they are of personal nature.

 

The funny thing in this action is that it is not primarily addressed at the people in the West, as there everyone understands that all the allegations brought up by Molari & co. are just rubbish, but to the Russians themselves, in order to destroy the positive image they have about the West in general and Finland in particular. Somehow all this reminds of the everyday anti-capitalist propaganda practiced by the Soviet mass media.

You never get tired of this amazingly stupid and meanless propaganda? You don't mind being an abettor of the Great J. Bäckman? Did you ever meet anyone with half a brain, who supports your "ideas"? Juha, wake up and get a life!

Good article. I see the usual Western funded stooges are posting inflammatory comments and personal attacks (as usual). Why don't you moderate comments so that your blog is not hijacked by Western propagandists and NATO lackeys?

Readers should also read my first sentences: "The West imagined itself as a human rights paradise, entitled to intervene, using force if necessary, to prod a wayward world to conform to its ways - -". I have interpreted the report in such a way that Russia cannot imagine any human rights "paradise" (it is a point), but rather every countries are in need for better justice and humanity. Russian MID refers to a few countries, because these countries have had too often illusions of their own goodness (as also we can read indirectly through the comments). My purpose is not any evil image (anti-Finnish image; I am happily a Finnish man!), but I want to remember that everyone needs to be more honest. As Baltic people so also Scandinavian people are too pretentious. Russian report was only a "soft touch": many serious cases and matters have been still ignored, eg. in the case of Finland. For example, just during this week, it has again been a crazy russophobic debate in eastern Finland, when a Russian woman would like to build a hotel.

To James. In fact, I was the first person in Finland, who wrote and gave an interview about the report of Russian Foreign Ministry. Firstly I wrote in my blog and then through interview in Finland's fourth largest newspaper "Kaleva". Later, Adjunct Professor Bäckman worte also it, and quite strongly. Of course, our messages have been in the same direction, because neither does claim against Russia's report, but my messages have own independent interpretation and also different style.

If these are your own independent interpretations of the happenings, then why do you repeat many of the false claims of Mr. Bäckman? Why do you state that "tens of thousands of children that are taken into care", when in fact the correct figure is app. 16 000 (total amount of children and adolescent persons, which lived in state controlled homes in the year of 2010)? Do you consider your cause to be that important that you are even allowed to lie, in order to persuade the people of the rightfulness of your "ideology"? Or is it simply so that you are not aware of the facts? Are you even interested in them?

There are, of course, tens of thousands of children that are taken into care. It is a huge number in small country, whose population is less than the population of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region. The number of the children, who have been placed outside the home, has increased - as we can see with help of statistics since 1991. In a single year 2010, app. 17 000 children lived in state controlled homes. This sum is not the entire amount, because from the 1990s and early 2000s  children have grown already up! I have not received these numbers from my friend. In fact, I have written and talked about this awful situation already in the late 1980s, although it was very much better situation in that time. I have found that too many people feel difficulties with the truth: the truth that Rimma Salonen traveled openly and freely from Finland to Russia (not secrecy), his son is Russian citizen (and Finnish government cannot take away Russian citizenship), the mother has spoken Russian language to her baby, but now the language has been prohibited. It's not question only about this mother. It is question about a dialogue, but unfortunately Finland has rejected the discussion. Western world are too ready for "human interventions", but not enough ready for dialogue and discussion.

Juha Molari, wrote in #10
There are, of course, tens of thousands of children that are taken into care. 

Sure there are if you talk about the whole period of Finnish independence. It would be much clearer to talk how many children are taken from their parents per year. And you should remember that some of them return to their parents later.

Juha Molari, wrote in #7
I want to remember that everyone needs to be more honest. As Baltic people so also Scandinavian people are too pretentious. Russian report was only a "soft touch": many serious cases and matters have been still ignored, eg. in the case of Finland.

Ok Juha, I agree that everyone should be more honest. But why doesn't this include you yourself, or Russia? Why do you keep spreading your lies and pro soviet propaganda?

To Matti: I can only repeat my text: "Among the establishment and the media in Finland, the Russian report has engendered indignation, conspiracy theories, scapegoat explanations and attempts to dodge the problems revealed - - - Bringing reciprocal practices into line with the multicultural and multinational 21st century hardly needs dramatizing - - -". I don't understand, how this living in our own time would be "pro-Soviet propaganda". I speak about racial, religious, language and national discrimination: why we should ignore speaking about these evil features? Certainly, "ex-Soviet propaganda" has included also many good things, but I live in my current time, and contemporary Russian Federation accepts well e.g. religions: this could be true also in Finland, when we speak about Rimma Salonen's Orthodox faith. Where is "pro-Soviet propaganda", when  people want to bring practices into line with the modern needs and the oppressed speak openly about their problems??

Juha, I am not referring to your latest article with this "pro Soviet", but as a whole to your writings. You point with your finger to human right problems in the West, especially in Finland, but deny much bigger human right problems, problems with freedom of press, corruption and political problems in Russia. 
As well you criticize heavily all those who write about human right violations in the Baltic States during the Soviet era (you stigmatizes them as fascists). You write that during Soviet era those countries were more democratic than now, even though then there was one party system, no freedom of press, it was illegal to make business, the church was persecuted and for ordinary people impossible to travel abroad. That is pro Soviet propaganda, nothing else.

Rimma Salonen was the first one who broke the law as she took her son, which at that time owned only the Finnish citizenship, to Russia and informed the father that neither she nor the son are going to return to Finland. You, of course, know all these facts, but are, as in the case of the children living in state controlled homes, not interested in them because they do not fit in to your cheap propaganda.

How is your job seeking in Russia progressing? I have a good hint for you: Get an assignment at one of the many building lots in Moscow or St. Petersburg and you will get a chance to observe how very much affectionately, in true manner of internationalism the workers from Uzbekistan, Kirghizia and Tajikistan are being treated there. Don't forget to write here about your experiences!

"James" and "Matti" wrote own imaginations and ideas, but claimed that they are my thoughts. Of course, it is much easier to do counter-propaganda in James's and Matti's ways. I don't write not about religious conditions in Soviet Estonia and the Russian Orthodox Church since 1990s in Estonia. "James" and "Matti" know well that Rimma S had intention to return to Finland as the documents show. "James" and "Matti" know also that large Finnish tabloids wrote propaganda already in that moment, when Rimma didn't know anything about any problem. These tabloids wrote about "a religious sect with scarf dressed women", which would have taken part in kidnapping. In reality, Rimma belongs to the ROC, which is no any sect, even though the Finns write still so offensively. "James" and "Matti" know well that a few years ago the Universityof Helsinki published a scientific research on discrimination and racism ("Finnish, Estonian, Russian"). The study showed discrimination in the workplaces, housing, school environment etc. In my opinion, the current world is so multi-national that we should be better open for dialogue than our pretending world is. Russia's MID did not pretend that Russia would be "without problems", but rather invite to dialogue. What about my work, "James": unfortunately I do not know how I should or could work as a carpenter.

According to Juha, "The West imagined itself as a human rights paradise... the human rights report published by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in December 2011 has destroyed that illusion forever."

Juha, if you begin from a wrong premise, you certainly will arrive at a wrong conclusion. I have lived in various Western countries for all my fairly long life, and I have not seen a one of them imagining itself as "a human rights paradise." Each and every one of them knows it has many problems and challanges, and each one acknowledges that it has not yet met all such challenges successfully. But this does not stop them from trying to help other countries in even greater need. The premise upon which you base your article is rhetorical nonsense.

As for your blackening of your Finnish homeland in favour of Russia's dubious charms, here are several current international reports that may be of interest (or embarrassment) to you.

REPORTERS SANS FRONTIERES Press Freedom Index 2011-2012: Finland 1, Estonia 3, Russia 142 (out of 179 countries surveyed).

THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION & WALL STREET JOURNAL Index of Econom Freedom 2012: Estonia 16, Finland 17, Russia 144 (out of 179 countries surveyed).

INTERNATIONAL LIVING Quality of Life Index 2011: Finland 7, Estonia 32, Russia 83 (out of 137 countries surveyed).

TRANSPARANCY INTERNATIONAL Corruption Perceptions Index 2011: Finland 2, Estonia 28, Russia 143 (out of 182 countries surveyed).

UN Human Development Index 2011: Finland 22, Estonia 34, Russia 66 (out of 187 countries surveyed).

NATIONMASTER Technology Index: Finland 3, Estonia 14, Russia 66 (out of 101 countries surveyed).

Per Capita GDP (2010 estimates): Finland US$35,400 (34 in world), Estonia US$19,100 (63 in world), Russia US$15,900 (71 in world).

Could I suggest, Juha, that you not embarrass yourself nor affront your readers' intelligence by proclaiming sweetness and light from the basis a human rights report issued by a source such as the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

@Marzipan6

Facts as the ones you present here are of no interest for people like Juha Molari, because he is aware that all these organizations are in reality CIA sponsored dummy companies, duty of which is to spread anti-Russian propaganda. Not for nothing Juha assures that there is much more press freedom in Russia than in Finland. Also the allegation that since Putin came in to the power 126 journalists were killed in Russia is pure russophobic defamation. Actually, in Finland every year thousands of journalists get killed. Ask Juha, he knows.

Juha, you have written yourself that Estonia was more democratic in Soviet era than it is now. It is not my imagination. Btw. I have not written anything about Rimma Salonen, who btw. was Estonian citizen when she moved to Finland. Rimma lived her life in Estonia and had never lived in Russia. Rimma's parents live in Estonia even today. It is interesting to see how your Russian friends demonstrated and demanded to "return Anton Salonen back to Russia"! As you well know, Anton had lived all his life in Finland!