Russian Maria lives in Finland and is furious with Putin: “He is flushing Russia down the toilet and destroying the country” | War Ukraine and Russia

In the area of ​​Lappeenranta on Finland’s eastern border, Finns live closer to Russia’s Saint Petersburg than their own capital Helsinki. So geographically they are close to Russia, but politically the distance from their big neighbor has never been so great.

Maria Taina-Parviainen is of Russian descent and furious with Vladimir Putin. “He’s flushing Russia down the toilet… he hates Russia, he hates all nations. He is destroying Russia. He’s not really a patriot at all,” she says.

Covid-19 and the war in Ukraine have already hit the border areas hard. Russian tourism has now come to a complete standstill.

“Russia has been both a blessing and a curse for this area. Of course we are very dependent on trade with Russia. But Russia also has a very bad side,” tour guide Riitta Mustonen told Sky News.

“We have more power needed,” she explains. “Russia is a country that only respects power, nothing else. Power needs a counterforce. And we get that by joining NATO.”

Watch Finland officially apply for NATO membership here: “Historic Day”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov called the possible accession a “serious mistake with far-reaching consequences”, but Riita is not worried. Together with more than 70 percent of her compatriots, she supports the Finnish application to join the alliance.

Seppo Koivupuro (91) remembers the war with the then Soviet Union. As a child he saw bombs dropped on Finland during the war that started in 1939. “I do not worry. Relations with Putin’s Russia are now very bad, but they are not yet so bad that they will attack us. I do not think so. I’m not scared, but I’m sad,” he explains.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had already indicated on Monday that NATO membership of Finland and Sweden poses no threat in itself, but that Moscow will respond to military deployments.

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