EU Airspace Violated

On June 3, Finnish MP Jari Vilén gave a forthright and candid interview [audio link] to the OBS news show on Finnish TV's Swedish-language channel, in which he discussed the 11 violations of Finland's airspace by Russian jets that have taken place since last October. As he pointed out, the violations are being ordered by the Russian government in an apparent attempt to test Finnish reaction and public opinion, and they are a matter of concern not only to Finland, but also to the EU, of whose airspace Finland's is a part. Barroso and Solana have agreed that the matter needs to be brought into the open, but the official Russian government reaction is still to deny that the violations have taken place at all (an old Soviet practice). In the interview, Vilén speculates that Russia doesn't really know how to orient itself to the new European Union, which now contains states that were formerly under Russian and Soviet control - he also points out that the rhetoric employed by official Russian spokesmen has changed radically since the days of Yeltsin, with issues like the Winter War and the Continuation War being brought up by the Russian side in bilateral discussions with Finland in a way that was unthinkable before. Russia is stronger than it was in Yeltsin's time, the economy is doing better - and so there's more confidence on the Russian side, bordering at times on aggressivity, Vilén believes.