FINLAND pitches in €100,000 for US study on Putin and Russia

SPUTNIK NEWS  –  Finland is planning to contribute 100,000 euros to an American study on Russia and Putin. The research will assess the likelihood of Russian president Vladimir Putin remaining in power until 2024, as well as the implications thereof.

Finland’s Defense Ministry and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have agreed to take part in the world-famous US-based Brookings Institution‘s Russian-themed research project titled, “Russia’s Revisionism: Implications for the West”. Both ministries are planning to split the cost, contributing 50,000 euros each.

The project aims to extensively investigate Russia’s objectives in relation to the West, at the same time addressing the internal events and personally President Putin.

Both ministries in question stressed, that the “Putin-study” bears no implications for the foreign policy.

“This is quite an ordinary international research project. Cooperation with the Brookings Institution has been underway for ten years,” Charlotta Collén of Finland’s Defense Ministry told evening newspaper Iltalehti.

Sini Paukkunen of the Defense Ministry’s Planning and Research Unit stressed that the goal is to obtain a palette of views from “outside of the Finnish bubble.”

The Brookings Institute is a renowned think-tank, headed by Strobe Talbott, an expert on Russia, who served as deputy foreign minister in President Bill Clinton’s administration. CONTINUE READING