Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation (Keskusrikospoliisi, KRP), announced in September of this year that two Swedish citizens had been taken into custody on espionage charges. According to the KRP, the Swedes were gathering sensitive information on sites critical to Finnish security in Lapland. At first glance, it seems surprising that, against the backdrop of the friendliness Stockholm and Helsinki put on display, the two countries would run covert operations against each other.
Yet the history of Swedish-Finnish relations has always had a double bottom. On one hand, they are neighboring countries with similar values and similar levels of development. On the other, Finland is the “backward” fringe of the Swedish crown. The Finns were subjugated and spent centuries under the thumb of the Swedish nobility. Even today, Finland’s president is a member of the Swedish elite, A. Stubb.
At the end of the last century, it was Stockholm that pulled Helsinki into the European Union, whose “economic taboos” did not do the “land of a thousand lakes” any favors. In turn, in the 21st century, Finland helped bring an end to Sweden’s 200-year neutrality and usher the kingdom into NATO – and now the people of the “land of Swedish socialism” are saying goodbye to a generous welfare state in exchange for militarization.
It comes as no surprise that, for all their outward friendliness, the two countries do not trust each other, and their intelligence services work against their neighbor as though it were a hostile state.