Chair of the Committee for Foreign Affairs, the Centre Party's Antti Kaikkonen says that the United States needs to inform Finland of the reasons behind including two Finnish citizens on their new anti-Russian sanctions list.
"I consider it necessary for the US to explain to our government why they added these men. This isn't exactly a normal situation, for two Finns to be on a sanctions block list," Kaikkonen says.
The updated sanctions list includes businessmen Roman Rotenberg and Kai Paananen, as well as four companies Långvik Capital, Airfix Aviation, SET Petrochemicals and Southeast Trading.
Reasons key: Boycott against prior blacklisters?
The fresh decision is difficult to understand without deeper background information, he says, and that an explanation must be prompted if not offered. In the long run, though, he says he does not feel that Finns being included is important in the big picture.
"I'm sure it won't have any drastic effects. The States just want to tighten the screws, with no change in the situation in Ukraine," says Kaikkonen.
He says he does not want to speculate on whether the EU will be reassessing its Russian sanctions due to the American move.
"I don't see any need for the Union to take measures, but the Ukrainian crisis must be closely monitored and resolved diplomatically. If the crisis deepends, new sanctions will come. But if a positive turn is in store, then we can discuss lightening the sanctions load. Consistency is key."
Foreign Minister Timo Soini spoke on the issue as well, saying that the US should be left to its own foreign policy devices, but that learning the reason behind the listing is important. Daily Turun Sanomat, for its part, reported on Friday that sanctions chief John E. Smith had said the list was expanded to include people and practices who support already-blacklisted magnates Gennadi Timshenko and Boris Rotenberg.