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Finnish parliament rejects citizen initiative to close Russian consulate

A petition to abolish the Russian diplomatic mission in Aland appeared on the website of the Citizens' Initiative on April 4, 2023, right after the country joined NATO

STOCKHOLM, December 11. /TASS/. The Finnish parliament has not accepted the citizens' initiative on closing the Russian consulate on the Aland Islands, the Yle news outlet reported, citing Acting Speaker of the Finnish Parliament Paula Risikko.

"The consulate in Mariehamn is tied with the treaty between Finland and Russia. The acceptance or denunciation of an international agreement is not a matter of legislation and therefore does not fall under the right of citizens' initiative," the news outlet quoted her as saying.

A petition to abolish the Russian diplomatic mission in Aland appeared on the website of the Citizens' Initiative on April 4, 2023, right after the country joined NATO. It received the necessary 50,200 votes for parliamentary consideration at the end of September. At the beginning of November, President Sauli Niinisto said that he did not believe that the time had come to revise the special status of the Aland Islands. According to him, the issue is a rather large structure of international law.

The Aland Islands are a demilitarized territory. According to the website of its government, this status was enshrined after the 1856 Crimean War. In 1921, an international convention was adopted confirming the demilitarization. In 1940, Finland concluded a separate agreement with the Soviet Union, which was granted the right to have a consulate in Aland to monitor compliance with this status.

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