‘We will survive Russian blackmail and the long winter, but we need unity,’ Sanna Marin tells MEPs

The European Union will survive “Russian blackmail” of energy supplies and the looming “long winter” but only if the bloc maintains its “unity, determination and courage,” said Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

“Russia challenges us, blackmails us, and threatens us, but we do not bend,” she told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, speaking in Finnish.

“As a result of Russia’s actions, the Western world is more united than ever. Russia is lonelier than ever.”

During her speech before the plenary, Marin painted a grim picture of the challenges the EU faces, including the Ukraine war, the worsening energy crisis, soaring inflation, an increasingly likely recession, strained public finances, natural disasters, democratic backsliding and the technological rise of authoritarian countries.

“However, even in the darkest moments there is hope,” she noted.

“Ukraine will win the war with our support. There are no other options. In our hearts, they have already won.”

Marin said the EU’s greatest strength – and the only way out of the overlapping crises – was the mutual trust and unity among its 27 member states.

“Blackmailing our societies through energy supplies is a way to erode European support for Ukraine and break up our unity. Putin must not succeed in this,” she said.

“With its war, Russia is destroying its own economy and future. Our trust in Russia is gone and even if the war ends today, trust will not be restored for a long time.”

Since the war broke out in late February, Marin has taken a hard line against the Kremlin, calling for sanctions and a speedy transition away from Russian fossil fuels.

Marin has also led Finland’s bid to join NATO, a process that, once completed, will redraw the alliance’s map.

In recent weeks, her government has pushed for a broad ban on visas for Russian citizens, as the country shares a 1,300-kilometre-long land border and is one of the few entry points for Russians coming to the EU.

Last month, EU foreign affairs ministers agreed to fully suspend a visa agreement with Russia and make the application system lengthier and costlier– but still possible.

For Marin, the EU must be ready to slap Moscow with “even tougher sanctions” to make the war unsustainably expensive.

“Sanctions must also be visible in the everyday lives of ordinary Russians,” she said. “It is not right that while Russia is killing civilians in Ukraine, Russian tourists are traveling freely in Europe.”

Throughout her speech, Marin repeatedly praised Ukraine’s resistance and the “brave and unyielding” characters of its people and said the bloc’s support for Ukraine must not collapse under the weight of the energy crisis.

“When we count the price of war in euros, the Ukrainians count the price in human lives,” she told MEPs.

Reflecting on the developments over the past months, the Finnish PM said the EU was paying a “heavy price” for its entrenched dependency on Russian fuels, which she seemed to blame on mistakes made in the past.

“We have to admit that we have been far too naïve about Russia and have built our assumptions about Russia’s activities on wrong ideas,” she said. “We should have listened more closely to our friends from the Baltics and Poland, who have lived under Soviet rule.”