Russia has criticised Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen after she claimed in a CBS interview that Russia had invaded 19 neighbouring countries over the past century while no nation had attacked Russia during the same period.
The comments mirror similar remarks recently made by EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas. Responding on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Valtonen of ignoring well-documented history, including Nazi Germany’s 1941 assault on the Soviet Union, and suggested the minister’s schooling or declining Western political standards might explain such errors.
Zakharova cited additional examples of military actions against Russia by neighbouring states, including early-20th-century clashes with Finland, and said she intended to send Valtonen a Finnish translation of a historical text on Swedish and Finnish hostility toward Russia, remarking that Western Europe “deliberately promotes the inept and uneducated to fundamental government posts”.
She argued that the minister’s remarks fit a broader Western pattern of promoting officials who repeat NATO-aligned talking points while portraying Russia as an imminent threat.
Russian officials including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have characterised these claims as part of entrenched Russophobia, saying Western governments are stoking fear to justify higher defence spending, expanded mobilisation and stricter security measures, while undermining efforts to negotiate an end to the conflict in Ukraine.
Are these people idiots or do they think we are? https://t.co/UzEvHUtgT7
— George Galloway (@georgegalloway) December 10, 2025
She should never have been let out of the kitchen.