 Thank you for your nice invitation to come here and to speak to you about Russia. We have already had interesting, useful discussions this morning at the RS4M ministry. We spoke without break for three hours. I think we could have continued at least another three hours. It shows that Russia is a fascinating topic. My presentation I have divided into three parts. First, I will deal with Russia as a neighbour. Secondly, I will deal with Russia as our European partner. And thirdly, I will deal with Russia as a global actor or as a global player. At Russia as a neighbour for Finland, I would say that we have a very multifaceted relationship with the country. Our relationship or let's say our management of our relations with Russia is based on our national interests. We have been responding to the transition of Russia by supporting positive developments such as growth in trade and investments and services and by combating the negative phenomena. And our policy in Russia is based on a well-functioning bilateral relationship and also on Finland's membership in the European Union. Russia matters and not only because of the common border of 1,300 kilometres. We believe in engaging Russia and we have very intensive and wide cooperation with the Russian society. The more interaction, the better it is. Whether we talk about political relationship, political visits, business community, NGO, civil society, etc. Between Finland and Russia there are no political problems but yes indeed we have practical problems and issues that need to be tackled. And I would say that it's quite normal that you have practical problems when you are neighbours and when you have very active cooperation. To illustrate the active relationship between Finland and Russia I could give you a couple of figures. For instance in 2010 there were 8.7 million border crossings between Finland and Russia. Finland issued close to 1 million Schengen visas to the Russian travellers and businessmen. And Russians I think are the biggest group contributing to the services sector in Finland. Our economic cooperation is pretty active. The overall trade balance in 2010 was 13 billion euros. And to put that into context the overall EU-Russia trade was 216 billion euros. USA-Russia trade was 16.6 billion euros in 2010. More than 600 Finnish companies operating in Russia. For many Finnish companies Russia is very important even though very challenging market. Russian investment climate needs a fair amount of improvement. Russian legislation is not as clear as one would wish that to be. We fully support Russia's modernisation, modernisation is let's say relatively new keyword, catch word in the EU-Russia relationship. We also signed our bilateral modernisation partnership declaration with Russia a couple of months ago. However at the same time we say that our long-term practical cooperation with Russia is a very concrete example of modernisation that we have been doing with the country for many many years already. What is very important in the modernisation process is of course strengthening democracy and supporting civil society and rule of law. These are the fundamental stones in every society that wants to modernise itself. You can't simply modernise from top down and you can't modernise if you don't have a proper foundation which is based on open society and rule of law. Russia is taking steps in the right direction I would say but a fair amount still remains to be done. I would like to take one concrete example on cooperation between Russia and Finland and also between Russia and the other countries surrounding the Baltic Sea. And that is engaging Russia in cooperation in the Baltic Sea area. Baltic Sea is an inland sea, very shallow waters and low in the salt. Surrounded by many countries who active in agriculture and also industrialised lots of heavy industry along the Baltic shores. And that means that the Baltic Sea is in constant environmental risk. A new challenge is maritime traffic that has increased tremendously in the Baltic Sea. Already now there are more than 2,000 vessels that sail on the Baltic Sea on daily basis. And that is only going to increase in the future when Russia is increasing its harbour and port capacity. And that also means increased oil transport and unfortunately according to the statistics some oil spill disaster will happen sooner or later. And that means that we all have to be prepared for that and that calls cooperation from all coastal countries Russia included. We have to share responsibility for the Baltic Sea and this is something where we have been calling for Russia for quite a long time. They have become more forthcoming and their commitment is getting stronger and we are very happy about that. And this is something I would like to emphasise as far as Russia is concerned that there has to be more change in the attitude. If you want to be a regional player, a global player you have to share information, you have to inform your partners, you have to tell what is going on. You simply cannot build a mega port in the bottom Gulf of Finland without informing your neighbours on the impact. Because it will have an impact on all the neighbouring countries, it will have an impact on the Baltic Sea etc. And that I can say that Russia as I said has become more forthcoming but it has taken some time. Russia as a European partner, Russia is a strategic partner to the European Union and a major player in many areas. The Russia relationship is not uncomplicated. We have a multifaceted network of cooperation with Russia. We have a participant cooperation agreement that we are now negotiating a new agreement. We have lots of meetings on different levels starting from the summit meeting which took place last week. We have meetings between different ministers for civil servant level, human rights dialogue, political dialogue, you name it. Europe is the most important trading partner for Russia. 80% of the European investment in Russia is of European origin. In spite of that, the relationship is not uncomplicated one. But it is a relationship that has a future. For Russia it has been difficult to understand what the European Union is all about. At least they claim that they don't quite understand what we are. Sometimes I don't quite believe them. I think they do very well what we are but they sort of want to use us to their own purposes and benefits. This is something we have to be very much aware of because what makes European 27 member states strong as the European Union is that we will share a same purpose and the same goal. We might get to the goal by different means but if we share the same goal it makes us a stronger partner together and a stronger negotiating partner with Russia. I have always said that Europe could be Russia's best friend if it would allow us to be the best friend. And it doesn't always allow that to happen. It is so much easier for Russia to somehow look above Europe and straight into the United States. But this is a setup I would like also to avoid. We are not competing with the United States or influence or anything. And Russia should understand that and give you one example how sort of a very practical example how Russia sees United States and Europe and that has to do with the WTO accession talks and that relates to the trade figures I just mentioned. Medvedev and Obama I think at one of their telephone calls or meetings they had last year they sort of agreed that they would bring the bilateral WTO accession talks between Russia and the United States to the end by end of October. Fine. And then European Union and Russia we also had our political discussion concerning WTO accession and said that we would try to bring the talks to an end by a certain date. Of course at the same time bearing in mind that Russia has to fulfill the criteria before it can become a full member. Russia of course has been telling us so easy to agree with the United States why are we still having troubles with the European Union while negotiating WTO accession. The answer is very simple. When you look at the trade figures it's very easy. The United States with 60.6 billion trade to say let's agree and the nitty critique can be discussed somewhere else for us. You know having this trade over 200 billion euros and energy issues it's not so easy. I mean we really have to find solutions to the issues before Russia can join the WTO. Yes and the second issue that is I would like to discuss a bit between European Union and Russia is the mobility visa freedom in other words. That's a political goal that we agreed in 2003. Complicated issue among EU, Schengen countries and Russia. Finally in October last year we agreed that we would agree on joint steps including common criteria that has to be fulfilled by Russia and the European Union before we can launch to the visa freedom talks. So far we have not been able to agree on the joint steps. There have been some dragging feet on the Russian side as far as the criteria is concerned. We simply can't make any progress before the agreement has been found. There will be some talks between the specialists or the experts in the next few weeks to come and we will then see where we are by September this year. For Russia visa freedom is an important as I say sort of a psychological, psychological issue. They find it very embarrassing that they still need a visa to come to the European Union but the only way to overcome this embarrassment is to put your own house in order, fulfill the criteria and then only after that we can launch the talks and see where we end up. An important area or a difficult one in cooperation between EU and Russia is foreign security policy. Russia is needed on many issues when we look at the international crisis and foreign policy issues. Good cooperation can only succeed if there is mutual respect and trust in each other. There we still have some way to go. Russia always claims that it's not an equal partner because it can't participate in the EU decision making. For us the answer is very clear, third countries do not participate in the internal EU decision making but that does not make them any lesser partners. There are ways how to cooperate and ways how to discuss and find solutions together. We have had some success stories like cooperation in crisis management of the coast of Somalia and in chat we are finding cooperation possibilities in emergency situations etc. But as I said it takes trust and confidence from both sides. Russia as a global actor. Russia is a superpower. If we think very mind that Russia is a member of the permanent member of the EU Security Council Russia is also a nuclear power. As I said Russia is needed as a responsible partner and actor on the global scene. But to be a sort of responsible actor in the global scene means that you also have to be a member of the relevant international and global organisations and WTO is a very good example. Russia is a proud member of G8, G20 but as I always say it's not enough to be a proud member you also have to sort of prove your value and the worthiness as a member and as an actor. The latest financial crisis I think they brought some realism into the Russian behaviour. I remember when the financial crisis started and Prime Minister Putin was very proudly saying ah this crisis do not affect us, we can cope our own, we are rich enough in natural resources etc. It only took six to eight months even less they realised that they are not an isolated island but they were hit by the crisis in the same way as other countries. Sounds like a cliché but I mean this is a pretty globalised world and Russia whether it wants or not is very much part of the globalised world. What happens in this part of the world will have an impact on Russia sooner or later. And that in due course might bring change in the Russian behaviour as well in my opinion. Never be naive about Russia, you never know what there might be in the back pocket but that doesn't mean that you should not try to find ways of cooperation and bringing in Russia as a sort of actor on the global scene.