Marin does not believe in peace efforts: Putin wants to restore the empire

“Each of us hopes for a ceasefire and a lasting and just peace. I hope I’m wrong when I say that peace cannot be achieved on this path,” he told the audience on the Esplanadi stage of the Helsinki Fair Center on Friday afternoon.

Marin refers to the US-led peace talks this week. Russia has announced that it is ready to continue negotiations with Ukraine and the United States in November.

“It is a big mistake to believe that [Venäjän presidentti Vladimir] Putin would like to come to the negotiation table to seek peace. Putin has no need to make peace. He wants to restore the Russian Empire, and there is no such thing without Ukraine. He will make peace only under duress and we should show strength, consistency and support Ukraine in every possible way.”

In particular, the United States should change its position, Marin insists.

“It is still not understood what Russia’s logic is. We should be much stronger, much stricter. This is not warlike talk. If our actions are interpreted as weakness, Russia will target us with even more aggression,” Marin said.

“Do we really imagine here that airspace is being violated, cables are being cut and secret work is being done by accident, and that democracies are being attacked in the digital world by accident?” he asked.

According to Marin, Russia will only stop if clear red lines are set for it.

Marin backed up the issue with mistakes made in the past: Ukraine was pressured to hand over its nuclear weapons to Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 2014, the reaction to Putin’s occupation of the Crimean peninsula was “much too weak” because they wanted to continue the cheap gas and other energy trade. That’s why Putin thought he could occupy all of Ukraine in 2022.

“It was his mistake. When I was Prime Minister, we in the West, on the other hand, did not give enough weapons and equipment in 2022 to Ukraine.”

Marin said that the world has unfortunately moved to a time where the thinking and power politics of “strong men” have received more support. Soft power does not enjoy the same interest as before. Soft power means influencing by attracting and persuading instead of forcing.

From Finland’s point of view, a world where there are no rules and diplomatic means are not respected is quite scary, Marin continued.

“In order for us to defend the rules-based world order and peace, we ourselves must be strong. Europe must be able to strengthen its own capabilities.”

Public event had been arranged for the fair because Marin’s Hope is action -book was published just under a year ago after the book fair.

The book has been published in about twenty countries, and Marin has recently told about it to Japanese and Portuguese audiences. Ahead are trips to, for example, Vietnam and Turkey.

Marin confirmed that she does not intend to run for office in next spring’s parliamentary elections.

“But if something threatens my country, I would feel obliged to help at that point,” he continued.