“We have to admit that we have been too naïve about Russia and that today we are paying the price, a high price, that of our dependence on Russian energy,” Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin told the European Parliament on Tuesday.
“We have built our assumptions about Russia’s activities on wrong ideas,” she said. “We should have listened more closely to our friends from the Baltic States and Poland who lived under Soviet rule,” said the 36-year-old Social Democratic leader, whose country shares more than 1,300 kms of border with Russia.
Prime Minister Marin was the guest on Tuesday of “This is Europe,” a series of debates in which leaders of EU Member States expose their vision of the Union at a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
In terms of energy, in particular, Europe should have changed its supply model much earlier for environmental reasons, which would have prevented it from finding itself in the present situation vis-à-vis Russia, she noted.
Related News
- Russia has funded political parties abroad to the sum of $300 million since 2014
- Russia ramps up interference in upcoming Italian elections
However, in her eyes, nothing is lost since the EU 27 will find solutions together. “Russia’s actions have unified the West as never before,” she said, “while Russia is lonelier than ever.”
In the end, Marin predicted that Russia will become impoverished by its military campaign while Sweden and Finland will have become members of NATO.
