27-year-old Michael Jonas, with a Finnish and a Russian passport, is one of those citizens, which the Ministry of defence of Finland and the largest broadcasting company Yle in the country broke out the “war of words”.
Now actively there is debate about whether individuals with dual citizenship of Russia and Finland in a special position in the army of Finland. According to Yle, persons with dual citizenship are deprived of access to important information in the army, for security reasons.
According to the Minister of defense Jussi Niinistö (Jussi Niinistö), Yle became the object of information influence: in the army there are no restrictions on which Yle reports in their articles.
In the army no discrimination
Michael Jonas was born in Petrozavodsk. At the age of 11 he moved to the Finnish Turku. Grandfather Michael was from Kajaani, and the family moved to Finland in the framework of the program of repatriation.
To serve in the army he went to for 22 years. The service was held in the brigade of Pori.
Mikhail Ionin Russian name, and coworkers knew that he has dual citizenship. However, he hadn’t noticed the army strong discrimination.
“Sometimes taunted. Said that a potential enemy coming from the East.”
Michael Jonas said that he did not take offense.
“In fact, it is so that the enemy will come from the East. It is not exactly from the West.”
In the army, Michael Jonas didn’t notice him as a person with dual citizenship has not admitted to any information.
“We were soldiers, at that stage we haven’t made any secret information. I was a clerk, and I had no restrictions. Worked with the same documents as everyone else.”
Michael Jonas has served in the army six months. For health reasons he was in class B.
Think twice if you have a Russian passport
Michael Jonas is well aware that people with high military ranks, if they have dual citizenship, you can check.
“If I became an officer and rose high enough, probably would have faced obstacles. If I had access to state secrets, probably immediately began to wonder why I have dual citizenship. After all, theoretically, because I can leak information.”
Michael does not believe that the Finnish army had been instructed from above to impose restrictions for individuals with dual citizenship. On the other hand, individual officers can see the threat that the Russian citizen is in their division.
“If the post involves access to state secrets, think twice before you allow a person with dual citizenship, especially with the Russian”.
Michael knows that Russia is very serious about the issue of dual citizenship. This is especially true of public office. For example, to the position of assistant of Deputy is not easy to get, if you have in addition to Russian, there is also a second citizenship.
Michael Jonas has not served in the Russian army, although he could to get there.
“Russian law is unclear. If I had a Russian registration, had to serve in the Russian army”.
In Russia, according to him, there is the concept of “place of residence”.
“My place of residence — the city of Turku. In Turku there are no units of the Russian army, so I can’t serve.”
In Russia, the holidays provide rare
Mikhail Ionin has a cousin who served in the Russian army. They exchanged experiences with Michael.
It seems that the service in the Finnish army nicer.
“In the Russian army, the service life is longer. Minimally it is one year. Vacation give not as often as here, only once a year.”
“I understand that the training here is better and more efficient. Cousin had served two years in the Russian army, and they never went to military camps.”
On the other hand, in Russia there are elite units that get a good training.
