PARIS, July 6. /TASS/. The exit of Finnish companies from Russia turned out to be ineffective, president of Finland Sauli Niinisto said in an interview with Le Monde newspaper.
"As regards sanctions, not a single Finnish company is doing business in Russia anymore. We are one of the few who did so. Regrettably, this did not prove to be an effective tool," Niinisto said, adding that countries outside Europe "continue trading with Russia."
Back in 2014, the West made a mistake in its predictions, believing that sanctions would "ruin the Russian economy," the president said. "The West believed sanctions would result in the collapse of the Russian economy. There were those that believed this would happen within six months. This was a miscalculation. The sanctions had an impact, but not on the scale we imagined," the Finnish leader added.