Moscow has has condemned a proposal from within the Finnish government to ban Russian citizens from buying property in the country, slamming the potential move as an “inherently segregationist action.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova gave an official statement on Saturday, commenting on a idea floated by Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen last month.
“In Helsinki, such discriminatory initiatives are clumsily justified by “national security interests,” Zakharova stated, acknowledging that no actual action on the matter had so far been taken by Helsinki.
“It remains unclear how exactly the desire to legitimize inherently segregationist actions directed against certain categories of people solely on the basis of their citizenship is combined in the minds of the authors of this initiative with still active provisions of Finnish legislation on human rights,” Zakharova said.
Helsinki is merely following the West’s “absurd” drive to cancel everything Russian, the spokeswoman claimed. In doing so, Finland is ready to “recklessly neglect” the principles of “freedom, democracy and the inviolability of private property” that it proclaims, she concluded.
The initiative to prevent Russian citizens from buying real estate was voiced by Hakkanen in January. The defense minister said a final decision could be made in spring, calling it a matter of “national security.”
“Several Russian [real estate] transactions have been found to have links that are problematic for national security,” the Finnish official claimed, arguing that “a total ban would be better” given that “not everything can be always found out.”