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Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, visited Finland in June 2013. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, was the first person of high profile who was found in the secret crime register of the Finnish police in the spring of 2013.
The crime register is primarily a database of suspects. But suspects of what? That is unknown.
What is known is that it contains tens of thousands of names.
On Thursday, Suomen Kuvalehti, the Finnish weekly, reported that several Finnish celebrities, politicians and hockey players have been added to the secret register also.
Among the ones found in the database are Matti Vanhanen, the former prime minister, Ilkka Kanerva, the former foreign minister and the longest standing member of the parliament and the current president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.
Among artists found in the register is Vesa-Matti Loiri, one of the most popular entertainers in the country.
“The operation stands on a very loose ground.”
Matti Vanhanen, a former prime minister of Finland. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
“The operation stands on a very loose ground,” Matti Vanhanen said to Suomen Kuvalehti.
Ilkka Kanerva, a former foreign minister. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Today
Kanerva suspected that he was added to the register because two members of the motorcycle gang Cannonball MC visited his birthday party in 2008 and offered him a cigar.
One of the hockey players on the list is Juhamatti Aaltonen, a winger in Jokerit, which plays in the Russian Konfidential Hockey League KHL.
Vesa-Matti Loiri, a Finnish artist. Picture: Tony Öhberg for Finland Toay
Uncle Nasse
Vesa-Matti Loiri commented the matter on his Facebook page:
“Nasse-Setä (Uncle Nasse, a sketch comedy character from Spede Show in the 80s and 90s) was in reality a spy for DDR and isn’t ashamed of that in the least.”
Three under accusation
Three people have been charged for the lack of supervising the police register.
Mikko Paatero, the national police commissioner, said that the register would be inspected along the bottom mud.
The investigation started in the turn of the year and it will last months.
According to Paatero, the person’s name can end up in the register also as a plaintiff if, for example, the person has been seriously threatened.
“That’s when the threatener is the suspect but the plaintiff can be entered in the register as well so that we know what the whole is about,” he said.
Uncle Nasse, played by Vesa-Matti Loiri, is a Finnish comedy character of the 80s, a host of a children’s TV show, who hated children and was nearly always drunk.
