In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about Finland and how pro-Kremlin propagandists have become more active in the Finnish political space since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. For the first time since 2022, they’ve gained some political power in Finland.

Russia’s political strategy in countries with Russian-speaking minorities (such as Finland and the Baltics) is typically quite similar: it seeks to rally these minorities around issues like language and minority rights, and then frames the situation as oppression.

At the same time, Russian speakers are extremely wary and skeptical of local media, and instead tend to follow Russian domestic outlets like Russia-1 and NTV, thereby reinforcing an almost impenetrable information bubble.

Since Russian spin doctors and propagandists are aware that, due to historical factors, it is difficult for new parties promoting these issues to gain popularity, they often infiltrate existing parties with an established voter base.

In Finland, there are around 100,000 Russian speakers, the majority of whom are ethnic Russians. Before February 2022, they were relatively apolitical, but since then, some have begun actively campaigning and attempting to portray Russia in a more positive light.

Their most common strategy is what I call the “political Trojan horse”: during their campaigns, they support broadly appealing issues like universal healthcare and social welfare, but once elected, they begin promoting topics such as reopening the Finnish-Russian border.

In Finland, their campaign centered around two candidates: Katja Marova and Ivan Deviatkin. Both ran as Left Alliance candidates and won council seats in South Karelia, ultimately receiving a relatively high number of votes.

Here’s how they did it:

The two live near the Russian border in southeastern Finland. In March 2025, they held a closed, Russian language-only event requiring prior registration. Organized by Deviatkin and Marova, the event focused mainly on the concept of “tactical voting.”

The strategy was a great success: Marova & Deviatkin were elected to the regional and city councils with 653541 votes. Their pro-Russia messaging helped boost the Left Alliance’s seats in Lappeenranta from 1 to 3.

They ignored all interview requests from Finnish media.

Marova and Deviatkin spread typical Kremlin narratives and both claim widespread “Russophobia” in Finland. Marova even considers “Slava Ukraini” hate speech. Deviatkin handed out Russian embassy WWII medals and liked online comments defending Stalinist-era policies.

Both are dual citizens. Deviatkin refused to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine, claiming it would endanger him and his son. But he went much further by spreading blatant Russian propaganda to Russian-speakers in Finland.

Marova has echoed Kremlin talking points online. She shared a post questioning the Bucha massacre, claiming the victims were Russians or that it was staged by Ukrainians. Since then, she has toned down her online rhetoric.

The two had previously co-founded Aleksanterinliitto, a group that advocates for reopening Finland’s eastern border. The group files complaints about alleged discrimination against Russians to Finnish courts, the EU, and the UN. Interestingly, Marova was later expelled…

…from the group after she spoke out against homophobic slurs made by one of its members. After this, Deviatkin also left the organization. After the elections, other parties froze out the Left Alliance. Eventually, Deviatkin was expelled from the party’s council group…

…for behavior “contrary to party values.” Naturally, he played the martyr card after. Left Alliance’s national leadership admitted letting them run was a mistake. Still, Marova and Deviatkin built a base by blending identity politics, conspiracy, and Kremlin bullshit.

This investigation was done by a fantastic Finnish journalist, @OutiSalovaara. Check out her new book (unfortunately only in Finnish):

Ruplaruhtinaat - Atena Kustannus

And here’s Outi’s article (in Finnish) about the elections:

Hämyisessä venäläishotellissa järjestettiin suljettu vaalitilaisuus – sen jälkeen kaksi kiisteltyä…

The 2nd edition of Vatnik Soup — The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation is officially out!

You can order your copy here:

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