MOSCOW, April 16. /TASS/. The severing of ties with Russia and the closure of the border have had a devastating impact on Finland, with the country’s socio-economic situation now comparable to the crisis of the 1990s, Russian Ambassador to Finland Pavel Kuznetsov said in an interview with TASS.
"The rupture of ties and the closure of the border with Russia have had a destructive impact not only on Finland’s eastern and northern regions. The current socio-economic situation here can be compared to the crisis the country experienced in the 1990s," the ambassador said. "At that time, Finland entered a deep recession following the collapse of ‘eastern trade’ after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Now Helsinki is repeating the same scenario, but of its own accord," he added.
Kuznetsov noted that in recent years Finland’s economic growth has stalled, with GDP stagnating at 2021-2022 levels.
"Public debt continues to rise rapidly and is already approaching 90% of GDP. The state budget deficit stands at around 4.4%, prompting the European Commission to launch an excessive deficit procedure against Finland," he said. "By the end of 2025, Finland ranked first in the EU in terms of unemployment, at 10.6% of the working-age population. As recently as 2022, this figure was below the EU average. Last year, Finland saw a record number of corporate bankruptcy filings since the 1990s crisis - nearly 4,000," the ambassador added.
