Finland And Denmark, Frozen Diplomatic Bank Accounts In Russia Pose Serious Problems

It has come into the news that by the representatives from both countries Finland and Denmark’s bank accounts in Russia have been stopped which is forcing their embassies to make payments in cash.

Pekka Haavisto, Finland’s foreign minister, announced that the bank accounts have stopped working as of April 27. Denmark’s foreign ministry revealed that its bank accounts had been frozen since last summer.

According to Haavisto, the Finnish embassy and consulate in Russia have been utilizing cash reserves to pay expenses. At the same time, their accounts have been frozen in Russia and are currently unable to be utilized.

According to the Danish Foreign Ministry, Russian authorities’ limitations resulted in the blocking of its embassy’s bank cards.

The ministry asserted that the embassy has been paying bills and paying personnel wages in cash for a significant amount of time because of the heightened verification requirements before any payments.

After all these queries embassies requested comment from the Russian Central Bank which was not answered. But the question is why is Russia putting these countries through all these meaningless fights? the reason is nothing but NATO. 

Finland, which shares a long border with Russia, officially became a member of NATO on April 4. This was a significant change in policy following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, which prompted Moscow to threaten to take countermeasures.

While the sanctions against Russia had made money transfers more challenging, Haavisto claimed that perhaps it was not thought through how serious consequences this would cause to Finnish embassies.

About the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which is intended to protect diplomatic missions abroad, he claimed that blocking the accounts amounted to “bullying.”Banks cannot decide in this situation, but here we are nothing completely different. 

According to Haavisto, Finland had submitted a warning to Russian authorities on May 4 demanding that Russia ensure the missions’ capacity to function and that Russia provide an official justification for the freeze.

As we have read before Russia’s central bank was quite reluctant to answer any question, are they going to answer the warning this time?

Reasons for Russia Freezing the bank accounts

The Kremlin said that the decision to freeze the bank accounts of Finnish embassies and consulates in Russia was in response to what it called “the collective West’s” hostile actions, which included Finland.

But it is important to note that any governing party and a diplomate body are two different things that run in two different morals and serve different functions thus these need to be dealt with separately.  Representatives from Finland and Denmark should not suffer the consequences of their government’s decision and Russia has to stop bullying and provide access to the respective diplomatic bank accounts so that they can pay their workers seamlessly rather than forcing their embassies to make payments in cash.

To keep in mind Finland shares a border with Russia rather than living inside as a Russian state which means they have separate institutions, governing bodies, and constitutions that run the country.

Thus if they want to become a member of NATO that’s completely their individual decision. surely this new partnership has brought some political changes but again how and how Russia’s involvement could be justified?

Russian embassies in Europe have experienced issues with their bank accounts, and in some cases, money has been seized as retaliation for Moscow’s actions in Ukraine.

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, commented on the suspension of Finnish diplomatic bank accounts by Russia.“The Russian side did not take this initiative. We are responding to the crisis that has been brought about by the governments of various Western nations, including, regrettably, Finland.

According to Peskov, Russia always responded to what it referred to as “unfriendly actions.”

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Helsinki had sent a note to Moscow on May 4 asking that Moscow secure the ability of the diplomatic missions to function and requesting an official justification for the freeze but had not yet received a response.

Moscow would respond, Peskov promised that “We are going to react to the note by emphasizing that the reciprocity principle and the principle of responding adequately to unfavorable actions are going to persist in our relations,” he said.

It is undeniable that Russia has always had its upper hand in politics and it has been proved multiple times by actions how they can take over anything but if power always gets the last say then why do we need governing body and what is the use of law and order?

If people can get away with power and prestige then it’s inevitable that the suffering of commoners will have no end.

Proofread & Published By Naveenika Chauhan