The organization of the Social Democratic Party of Finland in the city of Lappeenranta excluded the election candidate Ivan Devyatkin from its lists because he refused to condemn Russiaʼs invasion of Ukraine.
This is reported by Yle.
The party stated that Devʼyatkin acted contrary to party values by not directly condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Social Democratic Party of Finland demands from the candidates a clear position on the war. And Devyatkin was informed about it.
Devyatkin, 34, expressed his position in an interview with Iltasanomat on November 29. When asked whether the Russian invasion of Ukraine was justified, he refused to answer, saying that the publication had "too broad a set of questions."
Instead, in an interview, he said that he considers closing the border with Russia a violation of human rights, and called Finland the 51st state of the United States.
Ivan Devyatkin is a native of Russia who moved to Lappeenranta in 2012 to pursue a PhD in ecology. He says he now works as an environmental impact assessment manager for a large Finnish timber company and is one of the founders of the Alexandrov Union, an organization of Finnish Russians that calls for the opening of the eastern border.
- Municipal elections in Finland will be held in the spring of 2025.
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