- Tuesday, April 16, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
It could not have been worse than this for the people of Finland. While a leaked video of Sanna Marin, the 36-year-old prime minister of the country was seen dancing and singing with friends at a private party, two Russian jets were believed to violate the Scandinavian nation’s airspace on Thursday (18) as Helsinki sought membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Two Russian MIG-31 fighters are suspected of having violated Finnish airspace in the Gulf of Finland off Porvoo,” the Finnish defenc ministry said in a statement. A spokesperson of the ministry told AFP that the alleged violation lasted for about two minutes as the jets flew towards west for about a kilometre.
Finland’s Prime Minister @MarinSanna is in the headlines after a video of her partying was leaked today.
She has previously been criticized for attending too many music festivals & spending too much on partying instead of ruling.
The critics say it’s not fitting for a PM. pic.twitter.com/FbOhdTeEGw
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) August 17, 2022
The Finnish Air Force also sent up “an operational flight mission” to identify the Russian jets, it said, adding that the Finnish Border Guard had launched a “preliminary investigation”.
Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre border with Russia, its eastern neighbour, recently reversed its decades-old stance of non-alignment by seeking membership of the West’s NATO alliance after Russia invaded Ukraine six months ago. In May, Helsinki’s Security and Intelligence Service warned that Moscow “has the will” to influence Finland’s application process for a membership of NATO and one could expect it to undertake various attempts towards that goal, AFP reported.
Earlier this month, US president Joe Biden approved the NATO membership bids of Finland and its western neighbour Sweden.
But how much is the Finnish leadership worried about the so-called Russian threat, particularly after countless videos surfaced on social media showing the country’s prime minister partying enthusiastically?
The videos have also triggered a debate among the people of Finland over whether a prime minister should party at that level, particularly when the situation in Europe is not too friendly and forced neutral countries such as Finland and Sweden to apply for NATO memberships.
Marin, who leads the centre-left Social Democratic Party, has faced criticism about the party: Did the party involve drugs? Was she on a vacation? And above all, whether she was in a position to handle an emergency situation if there was one at the time?
The prime minister, the youngest incumbent in Finland’s history, acknowledged that she and her friends had celebrated in a “boisterous way” but said no alcohol or drug was involved. She also said on Friday (19) that she underwent a drug test to end speculation about illegal substances at the party.
“I hope that in the year 2022 it’s accepted that even decision-makers dance, sing and go to parties,” Marin, who is married with a four-year-old daughter, told reporters. “I didn’t wish for any images to be spread, but it’s up to the voters to decide what they think about it.”
Marin has often said that even though she leads a national government, she is just anybody else like her age and enjoys spending time with friends and family at free time.
