The head of the Finnish Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Kimmo Kiljunen, has resigned after a proposal he made to reopen Finland’s land border to Russia caused uproar, the country’s largest daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported on Friday.
Last month, Kiljunen told the Aleksanterinliitto, an association which supports and protects the rights and freedoms of Russian and Russian-speaking Finns, that he thought the closure of the border with Russia was a “human rights violation” which needed to be overturned. He also called a new law banning Russians from buying real estate in Finland “racist”.
Kiljunen apologised for his comments on Thursday, calling them “ill-conceived” and stressing that they did not reflect the position of his party, the Social Democrats. Kiljunen argued that the closure of the border was a personal issue for him as his wife has Russian roots and he has relatives, including a child, living in Russia.
Though Kiljunen, who attended a festival in Helsinki in support of Russian political prisoners in September, has no history of pro-Kremlin positions, on Thursday Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo called Kiljunen’s statements a “huge problem” and urged him to clear them up.
On Friday, Kiljunen asked to be relieved of his position as head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, with his fellow social democrats supporting his decision. As head of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Kiljunen had access to classified information on Finnish foreign policy, according to Helsingin Sanomat, meaning it was vital that the holder of the office adhered to the country’s stated policy position, even if they were a member of the opposition.
Finland closed its land borders to Russia in November 2023, ostensibly in an attempt to stem an increased flow in refugee traffic. While Vladimir Putin has said in the past that Russia and Finland had an “ideal relationship”, in March Russia announced that it would deploy troops and weapons systems along the Finnish border following the country’s decision to join NATO.