Finnish human rights activist, representative of RISI in the Nordic countries, doctor of socio-political sciences, official representative of the Donetsk People’s Republic in Finland Johan Bäckman was persecuted in the Finnish media for visiting the Crimea. According to Bäckman, the Finnish authorities are trying to intimidate him because of his visit to the peninsula.
“When I returned to Finland, at the Helsinki airport, during the passport control I was detained and told:”You are wanted.” Then I demanded explanations, they refused. Then they… confiscated my passport… Then they returned and told that I have a fine before the traffic police… They even did not give any evidence, they only demanded an answer to the question, if I admit my guilt,” he said.
Bäckman noted that after returning to Finland on the site of the largest newspaper in the country, Helsingin Sanomat, a hate campaign was launched against him. “There are dozens of threats on the forums to kill me in various ways, it’s just some kind of nightmare, I have not seen something like this before,” he complained.
The human rights activist stressed that he had never seen such an “anti-Russian and pro-NATO propaganda” in the European media.