“A Cossack takes everything which is loose, so you have to have a very straight opinion and say it clearly”

It's hard to birth
the new consciousness soul,
consciousness of the soul.
Painting by  Akseli Gallen-Kallela

President Sauli Niinistö has expressed his puzzlement with Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini’s decision to participate in an recent anti-abortion event in Ottawa, Canada. One of his ex-assistant  is a member of The Catholic organisation Opus Dei.
Soini on 10 May took part in an anti-abortion vigil where participants prayed and lit candles in memory of aborted fetuses, provoking criticism from both opposition members and his fellow cabinet members. Niinistö reminded to Talouselämä on Saturday that cabinet members cannot become private citizens at the flick of a switch while abroad.

Ministers can definitely become private citizens in their free time in some situations, but voicing your opinion is a whole other question. Are you really acting as a private citizen if you voice your opinion on a public forum of sorts on an issue that’s topical in the country you’re visiting?

asked Niinistö.

Ministers can’t voice their views on political and social issues as private citizens while abroad especially if the issues are topical in that particular country,

he himself answered.

On the day Finnish leader Niininistö says that EU losing out to strongman politics. Mr Niinistö let to the Financial Times in an hour-long interview in his official residence at the Helsinki waterfront.
The 69-year-old makes little effort to disguise the fact that Russia, Finland’s giant neighbour to the east, is at the forefront of his concerns.
He was finance minister when Finland joined the EU in 1995 — which gave the country a once-in-a-generation chance to break out of the orbit of its former imperial overlord, with which it shares a well-policed 1,271km border.
On the topic of Mr Putin, he cites an old Finnish proverb:

A Cossack takes everything which is loose, so you have to have a very straight opinion and say it clearly. 

The message is that, in dealing with Moscow, Finland’s EU partners have to combine respect with resolve.
As he reflects on the new age of strongman politics that has left little space for nations like his own on the world stage, Finland’s president momentarily abandons the understatement for which his country is renowned.
Sauli Niinistö says the EU is coming off second best in an era of personalised global policy under the likes of Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump in the US and China’s Xi Jinping.
For Mr Niinistö, a staunch pro-European, today’s rising geo-political risk should be “a wake-up call” for the EU.

Even the words, war, missiles, nuclear weapons, they are in everyday use at the moment,

he adds.
His present worry is the breakdown in transatlantic relations following America’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal which, according to Mr Niinistö, offers an open window for the Kremlin to get closer to Europe.

It is a clear setback for the west, 

he says,
noting the apparent thawing of relations at the recent meeting in Sochi between Mr Putin and Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.

Friendly may be too much to say, but they at least had constructive discussions.

Yes, by this time, Putin will begin to look like an easy partner.