The Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) on Tuesday published a national security overview in which it said Russia still poses a serious threat to Finland, with no improvement in sight. “Russia is expected to redeploy resources released by the end of the war in Ukraine. This will also increase the threat to Finland,” Supo noted.

In its review, Supo said the Russian resources will be freed up for influencing elsewhere when the war in Ukraine ends, adding that the end of the war in Ukraine will improve the ability of Russia to engage in hostile activity elsewhere in Europe.

“The Western intelligence community has a highly uniform view of the growing threat from Russia. As a country that borders Russia and as a state on the Baltic Sea, Finland must prepare for growth in Russian influencing,” Juha Martelius, Supo director, highlighted.

Supo has observed that Russian sabotage operations aim to influence public opinion and the sense of public safety, and to overwhelm the authorities in target countries. “The main goal at the moment is to undermine Western support for Ukraine,” it said.

In addition, Supo’s report noted that both Russia and China are continuously targeting Finland with espionage operations.

To remind, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo) is an agency of the Ministry of the Interior that operates in Finland and abroad.

Recently, the Finnish authorities confirmed in a statement that they have released the tanker that it has been detaining since a December 25 incident with damage to undersea transmission cable.

The tanker will leave Finland’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone, Finnish police said, under the control of the Border Guard’s patrol vessel.

Finnish authorities were investigating the rupture of the Estlink 2 power transmission cable within Finland’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Gulf of Finland.

The Border Guard took immediate action to investigate possible damage to critical infrastructure.

The investigative measures concerning the cable damage have reached a stage where the authorities have been able to cancel the seizure.

The seizure of the tanker was cancelled on February 28 as the authorities concluded that there “are no longer grounds for continuing the seizure.”

The investigation continues with further interviews of the crew and the examination of the material gathered.