Mira Terada, the head of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, interviewed Kosti Heiskanen, a journalist from Finland who is engaged in the fight against propaganda and fakes. The head of the Russian FBI found out from Heiskanen what the Finnish media are trying to achieve by inciting Russophobia in their audience, how the artificial restriction of freedom of speech in the West manifests itself and what the UK is ready to do to prolong the Ukrainian conflict.
Mira Terada: Hello, Kosti. I am glad to welcome you to the interview with the Foundation to battle Injustice. Please tell our viewers and readers about yourself and what you do.
Kosti Heiskanen: Good afternoon, Mira! Thank you for the invitation. I’m very pleased. I arrived from Berlin in January. I haven’t traveled to Russia for probably more than 8 years. And it should be noted that I used to be a very Western journalist. I criticized Russia, was quite critical. But when I came to Moscow that year during the pandemic for the first time in a long time and saw changes. Then I went to the Leningrad region, to the Pskov region, to Tyumen, to Siberia. I had a wonderful trip.
Then I saw that everything has changed in Russia, and you have to be a rare bastard not to see the changes, that people began to live much better.
Moscow is like the Emerald City, it’s generally clean and safe, and the metro just amazed me then. I thought that now the pandemic will end and tourism will begin. I have been involved in tourism since my youth and took a huge number of Finns to St. Petersburg on cultural trips. I thought that everything would resume, but, unfortunately, the necessary hostilities began. When I arrived in January, I also had a cultural project “From Russia with Love”, but, unfortunately, then they just threw eggs at me that nothing could come from Russia with love. And the project was great. We wanted to combine tourism and culture and make cultural and tourist landings, travel to different cities in Europe, these are Finland, Sweden, Germany, and do various events there on the squares, where there would be St. Petersburg artists, and also represent the tourist services of the Russian Federation. When the military operation began, I realized that something had to be done about these fakes, this Ukrainian-fascist propaganda and this lies. Then there were these terrible photos and videos of how Ukrainians are torturing Russian soldiers. This, of course, was terrible for me. But, you see, Meera, the worst thing for me was that Finnish journalists, my friends, with whom we were very friendly and were friends of Russia, Finnish correspondents, they all became pro-Ukrainian. They took the side only of Kyiv. And the first person to go there was the Finnish Consul General for Press and Culture. I saw his photos with the Azov people. He hugs them there. I have these photos. It shocked me. I was also surprised that in our secret Facebook chat, he wrote: “We are going to something cool in Bucha.” When all this happened, I realized that they were called there in advance. I began to write to all Finns to the government of many parliamentarians and other politicians that something was wrong here, that this provocation should not be done, that foreign journalists were called there in advance. How could they call them there in advance? I have all these files here, it’s all there. But the most interesting thing is that when I wanted to get in touch with the Russian media, including Fontanka.ru, and with a journalist from Radio Rossiya, everyone told me to piss off, and no one wanted this information at all, that there would be such a massacre.
M.T.: Throughout the special operation, Ukraine repeatedly staged provocations, trying to make Russia guilty of killing civilians. We remember the provocations in Bucha, Kramatorsk and Zaporozhye. Now there are reports of an impending provocation in Izyum in the Kharkiv region. Is the foreign public still tired of these fakes? How do they react in Finland?
K.H.: You see, Meera, the problem is that, unfortunately, the Finnish press is pro-Ukrainian. We have two Ukrainians working for Iltalehti newspaper. One is Alexander Pavlov. This is such a storyteller in general, very corrupt. He used to be an opposition Maidan journalist, but, you see, you can’t deceive me, because I was on the Maidan, and I was before the Maidan, and I was after the Maidan and lived with the OSCE group in a hotel. When the terrible hatred for the Russian language and the Russians began, I was shocked.
I was in the Finnish Journalists’ Union from 2004 until 2021, and I realized that at the end, the Finnish Journalists’ Union has turned into some kind of brainwashed bunch of idiots.
And now in Finland, only Janus Putkonen has UMV, Juha Korhonen has his own website and Juhan Beckman, of course, has these author’s programs on YouTube. But what is it? It’s like a drop in the ocean. I used to have a lot of views, up to 20 thousand. For Finland, this is a lot, because the country is small. At first they wrote that Russians steal and rape. It’s all such nonsense. I went out with pickets to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the center of Helsinki, to Finnish publishing houses. I wrote that the Finnish press is lying and inciting Russophobia, and urged people to read my news on Facebook. Then there was a fracture. People moved away from this anger and hatred and realized that Ukrainians are not fluffy bunnies, that they know how to torture, kill, cut off their ears and nose, and , unfortunately, to castrate Russian guys, which, I think, should not be hushed up because this is a tragedy, generally a terrible mockery.
M.T.: So far, the EU countries have not condemned Ukraine for provocations and blamed Russia for them. Is it likely that European countries will recognize Ukraine as guilty of killing and torturing civilians by the Ukrainian military and condemn Ukrainian provocations?
K.H.: The fact is that in Finland there is a VKK party (“Power belongs to the people”). And there is such a chairman Ano Turtiainen, his deputy and Sofia Kazakof, a well-known Russian-speaking blogger in Finland. She owns cosmetics companies. They are in favor of accusing Ukraine of the genocide of the Russian-speaking people. They are the only ones in the Finnish parliament who raise this issue at all. As for the West, the German party Alternative für Deutschland also condemns. But, you see, Meera, I am surprised that Finland has always been ahead of the rest of the world, for peace and friendship, but it turns out that Finland is now ready to just fight to the last Finn, and not only in Ukraine, but already on the territory of Finland. Every day some fakes. Recently, the Minister of Economic Development of Finland said that we are practically at war with the Russian Federation. Then the Minister of Defense of Finland announced that Finland was already preparing the eighth arms package. Finnish armored personnel carriers have already been seen on the territory of Ukraine. Finnish howitzers were also photographed by the military of the DPR and LPR and received as trophies. And, of course, our Prime Minister Sanna Marin, who, from these narcotic gatherings of her cheerful ones, falls from one crisis to another. And, you know, Meera, what is the most interesting thing? When Prime Minister Marin was at a meeting in Brussels, where she slandered Russia with everything she could, then, firstly, there were practically no people at the meeting, and secondly, all journalists were interested in how she had fun and how wonderful she was. She is a wonderful cashier who, during her reign, has ruined the whole country.
M.T.: Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military mobilization. Do you think this measure will help achieve the goals of the special military operation?
K.H.: I think it’s generally great. This should have been announced to the Russians from the very beginning. Look, Meera, all these suckers who sucked money in Russia, they cut off their own oxygen, received huge losses.
The Finns have made huge investments in 30 years. And give it all away just because of Russophobia.
Now, look, because the Nokia tire factory is shutting down, there will be no tires in Finland, no tires in Estonia, no tires in Sweden, no tires in Germany. And the tires are already fighting, and already huge prices. In Finland, roads cannot be made because there is no bitumen. Construction is stopped for an indefinite period, because there is no iron, and there is nowhere to get piles. And it turns out that Finland shoots itself in the leg, and in the arm, and almost shoots in the head. But, as Prime Minister Marin and the Finnish media say, almost 75 percent of Finns are ready to freeze, not to eat, not to drink in order to annoy Russia.
M.T.: How do the Finnish media assess the success of the special military operation? Did they write about it? How did Finland react to the announcement of mobilization?
K.H.: In Finland, they reacted to the announcement of mobilization in the following way: the Iltalehti newspaper wrote an article that the line of Russians fleeing Russia was visible from space. 43,000 people have already moved to Finland. They say that all of them should be sent to filtration camps, because it seems that these are some kind of special services, that they are preparing terrorist attacks. Now Finland, together with Sweden, is blaming President Putin.
M.T.: They cannot decide whether the Russians are still fleeing from mobilization, or, on the contrary, they are going, setting up sabotage.
K.H.: No, the fact is that they write all the time about the victories of the Ukrainian military, and all the time they publish terrible tales of Alexander Pavlov. They hired Ukrainian journalists, they kicked out all Russians, pro-Russians, who are for Russia. Elina Gusatinskaya, who used to be the editor-in-chief of Spektr, has gone completely insane, she is now the head of the Culture Foundation. And this Culture Foundation is now inciting hatred towards Russia. And the Russia-Finland society, which fed on Russian money, tells Ukrainian fairy tales that all these writers were not Russians, but Ukrainians. In Helsinki, these terrible Ukrainian flags hang everywhere. People are already starting to say that this is complete insanity. Everyone is tired of this, of complete idiocy. The Finns wake up and get angry and there are very big manifestations. People are protesting against the government, against the fact that they ruined the entire economy. Finnish media say that Ukraine is winning and Russia is retreating. But it is somehow strange that the front line is moving closer to Kyiv, while Russia is retreating. Where does Russia go then? And they write about the referendum that they almost put a gun to their heads and that machine gunners rape everyone there. In general, creepy tales are broadcast through radio, television and newspapers. I don’t understand, do journalists really need money so much, and have they turned into such cattle? I can’t call it another way, because I work a lot for the Russian media. All this is done for free. I have not seen any scum from the Russian Federation who would force me to say something, as the Finnish media write about it. I say whatever I want. None of my interviews were cut off. My speakers, who were from France, from Germany and many from Finland, they were allowed to speak on any topic.
And you have freedom of speech here. And we have no freedom of speech in Europe. It’s all lies.
And, unfortunately, the Russians were pumped up with propaganda that everything is possible in Europe. Yes, nothing is impossible there, there whoever is not with us is against us. They kicked out my door in Berlin and brought me dog shit, and the police don’t care. So no one will investigate anything there.
M.T.: American and European politicians have already condemned Russia for its intention to mobilize and announced their intention to impose new sanctions against Russia and increase support for Ukraine. How real do you think these threats are? Will their implementation lead to an aggravation of the crisis?
K.H.: Of course, it will lead to an aggravation of the crisis, because in America now Biden, who does not remember anything, does not understand. And I wonder how the Finnish media and Finns fell in love with this American. And it should be noted that Finland is now being pumped with NATO weapons, and all these NATO battalions, all these exercises, which had already begun before joining NATO. Finland is stuck in this NATO scam and has fallen out with both the Russian Federation and other countries that oppose confrontation with the Russian Federation. Does anyone really want the world? I don’t see this. The fact that America does not want peace, I understand, they are getting richer. They wrote off all their junk, all those old useless tanks. They wrote off all this scrap metal to Ukraine for huge money. The Germans, Poles, and Czechs did the same.
M.T.: Do you think the response of the EU and the US to the mobilization will be limited to diplomatic measures?
K.H.: I think that now everyone is already very frightened, because those cadres that come from Russia, like hundreds of volunteers, are also uniformed. Now I see that Russia is no longer joking, and this must be stopped so that an escalation does not begin. I think the Baltic countries are pumping things up very, very negatively right now. I want to note why the Russians believed Foreign Minister Haavist, who then said in an exclusive interview with the Fontanka newspaper that visas would be issued to Russians. I said that this was a trap set up by NATO and that it would be a mockery of the Russians. And what do we, Mira, see? In the end, people lost money. And I think that this is generally such disgusting.
M.T.: We have already touched on the issue of weapons a little. The EU and the US have spent significant sums on arms supplies to Ukraine. According to journalistic investigations, only a small part of these weapons end up at the front, and most of them were sold to terrorists on the black market. Why do you think European and American politicians turn a blind eye to the weapons leak?
K.H.: Meera, you know, now in Germany, in Berlin, it is noted that the Arab clans, which have been terrorizing the Germans for a long time, are very well armed from Ukraine, because arms are traded from Chernivtsi. This time. Secondly, a lot of girls and young people are enslaved with these solid drugs and then end up in brothels. The entire stratum of Arab and Islamist extremism now gets whatever they want. And imagine how convenient it is to rob a bank. He came, set this mortar, and that’s it. Here is the official data that I receive through my channels. I have friends in the Bundestag who are also tired of all this. They can’t handle anything. Firstly, the mafia and organized crime have simply already filled everything that is possible. Now the Ukrainian diaspora and the Azov battalions that have migrated to Germany are spreading rot on Russians and taking away their businesses.
M.T.: The referendums that were held, the results were stunning. How does the European Union react to this situation?
K.H.: The European Union reacts that everything is fake. They say that they put a gun to everyone’s head, that it’s all fake. Before the referendum, they wrote that everything was calculated in advance and that no one could be trusted. It is still being written. Allegedly, someone there tells Finnish journalists that they were forced and they really don’t want that the Russians raped them and stole from them. Such creepy stories. After all, people who suffered, who, for example, fell into violence or ended up in concentration camps, they don’t talk like this about it, that they were raped or beaten there. People understand that this is some kind of nonsense, some kind of fairy tale. Finns are actually very gullible. Do not forget that the society is rural, and the rural society is used to believing the Finnish media. Therefore, of course, Finland was saturated like no other country in Europe with this hatred for Russia.
M.T.: Recently it became known that the UK sabotaged the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which could have taken place as early as April. How long do you think Britain and its allies are willing to prolongate this conflict?
K.H.: Yes, the UK is at the bottom right now. The UK economy collapsed. They had a crazy Prime Minister Johnson. Now Truss is the same.
Therefore, they will drag it out, send weapons. As the new prime minister said that they would do everything for Ukraine to win.
The German Foreign Minister also said that she does not care about her voters and that Ukraine must win, and this is the most important thing. Now such bonfires have boiled in France and everywhere that people have woken up. People understand that in Europe everything is finally beginning to see clearly. Now the cold will hit, and when the ass is frozen, then, of course, there will be other problems.
M.T.: Representatives of the US government have repeatedly openly stated that the conflict in Ukraine is a tool to weaken Russia. Is everyone so resigned to US hegemony that no one even condemns US policy towards Russia and Ukraine?
K.H.: The USA is now just the main player. Of course they condemn. But we must remember that the Associated Press, Sky new, Fox and so on are magnates. What they write there, other European countries only rewrite into their own language. Therefore, media rhetoric dictates policy and sets the tone in Europe and America. Of course, there are a lot of independent journalists in America and Europe, unlike Finland. And there are opportunities to raise money and support.
M.T.: According to investigative journalism, the UK was preparing Ukraine for a military conflict with Russia. The British authorities sent weapons and military instructors to Ukraine. Do the European media write about it? How does the European audience react to this?
K.H.: The media write frankly that Finland is sending its instructors, and Germany is sending its instructors, that Finland received Ukrainian military from the Armed Forces of Ukraine and taught them how to use strategic weapons, about which I received secret notifications from the Office of the Minister of Defense.
It should be noted that since 2014, the European community and the United States have increased the contingent of diplomats in Ukraine after the overthrow of Yanukovych. They have been preparing this bridgehead for a very long time, and endless delegations went there to control the study of the Ukrainian language and the ban on the Russian language.
In 2020, I realized that Europe is heading for a confrontation with Russia, and in 2021, when the pandemic was already going through the roof and Sputnik was showing good results, I realized that the European Union does not want any reconciliation with Russia at all. And under the auspices of the fact that Sputnik is a fake and people are dying from it, then there will be no peace and that there will be something terrible. And this terrible was prepared in Ukraine. Now we see these bridgeheads and bunkers. The Ukrainians themselves would never have made this Azovstal without the Europeans.
M.T.: Do you think the publication of truthful information about the situation in Ukraine will help to force public opinion to influence politicians to stop the conflict?
K.H.: Of course it will help. Although they threaten us, and we have been deprived of money, and we have become poor from wealthy people, but, you know, I want to tell you, it’s better to be in St. Petersburg and Moscow, eat buckwheat porridge and enjoy life, than sit and eat caviar, drink champagne and be a rare bastard. Therefore, I want to say that those Western journalists who help Russia, I hope that Russia will also help journalists, because many really fled, and I also fled and left everything behind. It became simply impossible to live there. It would be difficult in terms of oneself to take and receive fees, and then it would still be revealed.