On a Tiny Finnish Island, a Helipad, 9 Piers — and the Russian Military?

“I don’t know in whose sick mind such a thought could be formulated,” Mr. Medvedev said. “Such thinking is paranoid.”... That statement is more than enough for me, sneaky ruskies.

Ominous. As both a Canadian and an American, I'm glad the Russians don't still own Alaska.

Sounds like a special forces forward post. When the Russians tell you that you are being paranoid, remember Ukraine.

Naivety knows no boundaries. Money laundering and corruption are synonymous with Russia. It's no wonder Donald Trump has been so friendly with them.

Who would think that the Russians would use lies, deception, shell companies, subterfuge and even illegal activity to advance their national agenda? Who would think that? Possibly anyone With a brain?

Yeah... I'm sure that's what the people of the Ukraine thought also. There's no way Russia would ever go against the world and attack.

Clearly the Russians failed to use their cloaking devices. Good grief.

I've set up several of these places over the years and been to several more...for work. This is classic preparation of the intelligence and special forces battlefield. Anyone involved in this sort of activity anywhere will recognize the modus operandi of our Russian colleagues and entertain no doubts about its purpose.

Do we not already know that this is a well, maybe not so well, disguised FOB for Putin's Russian black-ops. Like the Ukraine model, in they come then who decides to throw them out? Short of war what else are the options? You don't shut this operation down now it will cost a lot more later.

So? Did they find anything illegal on the island? Anything that would suggest that there is a sinister plan behind the installations on this island? Maybe some papers of Hydra or a lost shopping list of Blofeld? Or at least a memo of #2 to Dr. Evil? I have been hunting for a holiday home in the Carribbean and I have seen a few places like this one, quite a few designed and built for Russians that have moved out recently. I have also seen a few Dachas in Russia that look quite alike this kind of installation on the island, None of them had anything to do with the military or any secret operations. It seems to me that a military theme is quite a thing with wealthy Russians and that more often than not some of their private houses are overly large and look like a military installation. That seems to make them feel powerful. But that is it. So the question again "Was there anything illegal on this island?" If not, consider an old saying "Just because you're paranoid, does not mean that they are not out to get you".

Here’s an idea, stop allowing foreigners to buy land and property in your country. Trumps claims to be a nationalist, I’m surprised he hasn’t signed an executive order stopping foreign investment in US property. But wait, he’s not really a nationalist, he just plays one on Twitter

Pavel Melnikov is also a citizen of EU. He has a passport from Malta.

The last time Trump visited his golf course in Scotland, I remember thinking oh man, if Putin wanted to set up some secret operations there, Potus would totally let him. I thought they are in danger because he has no loyalty to anyone except Putin. I hope Finland kicks them out now before something awful happens.

Seems like this info might have rated higher in today’s news. Perhaps another reason why Trump works to monopolize daily media? In the article, the Russian response, “I don’t know in whose sick mind such a thought could be formulated, Mr. Medvedev said. Such thinking is paranoid”, ...reminded me of the officials in Bulgakov’s ‘Master and Margarita’. A great book and perhaps now a glimpse into our future.

First we had the Russian influencers in Greece arrested shortly before the Macedonian referendum. Now we have this action in Finland while a controversial massive NATO exercise in Norway is going on. In both cases we are flooded with huge amounts of anti-Russian propaganda. I don't know what this Russian guy is up to. But I do recognize it when the US propaganda machine is trying to change the discussion.

I join sentiments expressed below about Russia to be quarantined. I had said it as much some time back in connection with another story that I would go further and have our Congress declare Russia - the whole country - as a corrupt enterprise. May be, that will get attention of EU and others in Europe - who love Russia's thieves who bring in all this illicit money and financing. And come to think of it - China should be our next target. Both aim to harm our country and our allies - in ways small and large.

You can see the island using Google Maps in satellite mode. It's quite a site and someone has poured a lot of money into it's development. Finland is right to be suspicious and investigate.

There was a story in the NYT a year ago (or more?) about Iceland enacting legislation to prevent the Chinese from buying up some of their country - which the Chinese were in the process of (under the radar using private wealthy citizens) - for some nefarious purposes.

"credibility. Moscow has denied so many strange and sinister things that have turned out to be true — or at least far more plausible than the Kremlin’s often-risible counter stories — that even the most seemingly far-fetched speculation about Russian mischief tends to acquire traction." This is a dangerous approach to reporting. Mere accusation is not proof. We've fallen into that sort of thing in too many things lately. Trump's are crazier, but others are not behind in treating accusation as proof. I don't much care if Russia is made to look bad. The US after its Mideast behavior has no credibility either, so there is no loss there. However, if we come to believe our own evidence-free accusations, we will tend to mislead ourselves. We will end up looking in the wrong directions, alert for the wrong things. Ugly surprises come that way. One example is this, "Mr. Karlsson, the former construction supervisor, refused to believe that Mr. Melnikov was setting up hideaways for Russian soldiers, noting that the businessman always insisted on having large glass windows facing the sea — not a good feature to have if bullets are flying." Now I don't know what the Russian company is up to, and it is probably no good in some way. However, plate glass windows are not the frontage for military barracks, and we need to look past that accusation. Whatever the Russians are doing, we don't know, and we are not looking, because we've made our accusation -- about the wrong thing.

Sooner or later, the west is going to come to the conclusion that Russia needs to be completely quarantined. That means no business to business relations with Russian companies, no travel visas for Russian passport holders, no flights to or from Russia at all, and certainly no Russians buying property or companies in the west.

So that's why the Russians and Chinese are buying so much of the USA...... they both practically own it!

Maybe we'll learn more, maybe we won't. The Barents Observer is a fun paper to check out for a glimpse of what it's like living up far northern Europe, and what things are like among the members of that neighborhood. Sweden now has the northernmost electric transit bus fleet - not too far south of the Arctic Circle. https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/travel/2018/10/worlds-northernmost-electric-bus-route-starts-lulea And in Russia, they're working on a law to prevent their military from posting selfies or social media - notably after the embarrassment of having active-duty Russian military posting geotagged data from inside of Ukraine when they swore there weren't any of their soldiers in there. https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/security/2018/10/no-more-selfies-or-some-updates-russian-soldiers-0

Very interesting story! I am surprised that the authors missed a potential alternative explanation, Santa Claus. Maybe this island was just a southern branch office for Santa's main HQ in Rovaniemi. Something to consider.

Want to bet that Trump and Putin will have some sort of a joint venture on the island?

Google maps makes me think somebody wants to take control of the Baltic Sea.

Recalls some of Putin's initial moves in eastern Ukraine and the Chinese constructing military islands in the Pacific. These forward positions pay big dividends once the shooting starts...

So, did they find anything military or not? I've read through the article multiple times and haven't seen anything. So far it's all "oh no, he built a helipad and piers", "oh no, he installed satellite dishes and cameras", "oh no, he covered his swimming pool with camo colored rags" and "oh no, he apparently engages in some tax-evasion schemes and carries a lot of passports". The last thing perfectly describes pretty much every East European businessman since the fall of the wall. BTW, just looked up the island on the Google maps. There are several hotel-like buildings scattered throughout the shoreline and each of them has it's own separate pier. Looks like the guy was trying to get into hotel business.

Thomas Friedman recently wrote an article about second Civil War in this greatly divided land. May be we need to think bigger, a second Cold War but with an additional protagonist.

An interesting tale to be sure, but how many times will we have to read hard drive sizes expressed as both (giga/tera)bytes and LOCs (Libraries of Congress)?

"Mr. Melnikov sometimes skirted building codes — like when he installed the helipad on Sakkiluoto — but was never threatening, the mayor said." Building military barracks and landing piers in preparation for a Russian invasion isn't threatening? How sweet that the Finnish mayor is so trusting.

Lots going on here : 1) Reminds me of a movie from a few years back..."The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming !!" with Alan Arkin, Carl Reiner and Johnathan Winters, a comedy you should watch, if you haven't. 2) More ominous...this could be a plot by the Russkis to steal beautiful Finnish women as brides for Russian men as happened during WWII in Iceland when Brits stationed there took away many Icelandic beauties as brides ! The Icelandic's never forgave them. 3) OK, OK, I'm almost done: Lots of piers on the island, barrack-like quarters, saunas. fluffy towels, etc. How about a "time-out" rest for Russian Submariners ???

Oh, c'mon - you all know you're thinking it. Trump Sakkiluoto vacation villas, opening 2019....

Having watched the Norwegian drama Occupied (Okkupert) on Netflix, all of this sounds very familiar.

" a communications center with sophisticated equipment far beyond what an ordinary tourism or property company would need...." It is rather obvious that the increased assertiveness of Russia (and China) includes taking advantage of freedoms that are inherent in democratic societies. Finns should be cautious - a third of their country has been occupied by Russia (Murmansk is a Finnish city).

Thank God the Baltic Republics (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) joined NATO. Otherwise, Putin and his tanks would have been there long ago.

Beware Russians bearing helipads and multiple piers. Beware them more with ultra sophisticated surveillance. Watch out for their camouflaged commandos. They do not want the Finns to work on joint defense exercises with the West. And they’re known to use poison and tamper with other countries’ elections. For Finland it’s like having a bear in your backyard who is ravenous. Keep your honey locked up.

As they prove every day, in many ways, Russians are thugs who will resort to every subterfuge to dominate other countries. The sick paranoid thinking is theirs alone.

Being from Russia, and knowing how these people think and operate, this does sound just like a typically Russian way to waste some government money. Certainly an ambitious plan - to infiltrate a neighboring country with military bases thinly disguised as oligarchs' dachas... But a truly hare-brained idea, to expect to get away with something so brazenly obvious. So in the end it'll all be written off, the stealthy GRU bases, and the millions paid for the islands and the helipads... But who's counting - there's more oil in those wells in Western Siberia. Then of course I remember that it was only 5 years ago, that I was laughing off and dismissing their efforts to build up propaganda networks in the West; all those RTs and Sputniks, and "campaigns to influence public opinions" (aka troll factories). Which was seemingly just as idiotic; and also looked to me as just a waste of their oil revenues... Like, who could they possibly expect to buy their silly anti-Western crap, in the West? Ha-ha, lol! Well, somehow I'm not laughing anymore.

Just another example of how you can never trust Russia...or China for that matter. And I'm a liberal Dem.

A map would have helped communicate the geopolitical significance of the island. Instead we have six pretty pictures, including two bystander photos with captions merely repeating statements in the article. Still, it's an important reminder that Putin remains a Cold Warrior. The Soviet Union may be gone, but Russian aggression continues. Meanwhile, our President is waging war on Twitter against Mexico and Canada. Alas, Rome burns ....

Just like the invasion of Crimea by Putin´s army this is a campaign of intimidation and fear to expand Russian influence and stoke anti-european right wing political shenanigans in Finland and other nordic countries.

As the speedboats packed with Finnish commandos approached the island I bet the strains of "Finlandia" by Sibelius were being played on their earbuds!

The Finns hate the Russians for good reason. That is the only reason the Finns sided with Germany during WWII-to curb the Russians. Finland was the only country to pay back it's WWII reparations for that bad decision. Sisu Forever!!!