US embassy cable - 04HELSINKI1132

C O N F I D E N T I A L HELSINKI 001132 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EUR/NB 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/31/2014 
TAGS: KNEI, PGOV, PREL, PHUM, FI, OSCE, Finland-Ukraine 
SUBJECT: E-PINE: FINLAND COMMITS TO SEND OBSERVERS TO 
UKRAINE ELECTIONS 
 
REF: SECSTATE 181293 (NOTAL) 
 
Classified By: POLOFF DAVID ALLEN SCHLAEFER FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) and (D) 
 
1.  (C)  Per reftel instructions, Pol Chief and Poloff 
demarched Tuula Yrjola, the desk officer for Ukraine, and 
Terhi Hakala, Director on the Unit for East Europe and 
Central Asia, about the need for additional election 
observers in Ukraine during upcoming elections.  Poloffs 
noted the interest Finland had expressed at the last e-PINE 
PolDirs' meeting about democratization in Ukraine, and 
stressed that this was an excellent opportunity to use the 
e-PINE framework to advance our shared agenda in Kiev. 
Hakala agreed, and said that Finland was prepared to commit 
up to 4 election observers for the October first-round and 
November run-off elections.  She said that it would be 
difficult to commit more than 4 since Finland had also been 
asked to send observers to Minsk to cover Belorussian 
elections during the same time period.  However, Hakala said 
that Finland was extremely interested in what happens in 
Ukraine and would consider sending additional observers if 
possible. 
 
2.  (C)  Hakala and Yrjola also shared their views about the 
upcoming Ukrainian elections.  Hakala opined that while it 
was unrealistic to hold out hope for "fair and free" 
elections in Ukraine now, the GoF was at least looking for 
progress toward that goal.  She said the Finns take every 
opportunity they can to stress to the Ukrainian government 
the need for democratic reform.  She said that Finnish 
observers would be monitoring issues such as the incidence of 
ballot stuffing, how much pressure there was on voters at 
polling precincts to select certain candidates, and how much 
pressure was put on the media (and the media's reaction) to 
slant coverage of the candidates.  Hakala said that it was 
still unclear which of the two leading candidates would 
likely win the election, although Yanukovych was clearly 
Putin's choice, and this gave him a marked advantage.  Both 
Hakala and Yrjola said that a Yanoukovych victory would lead 
to a realignment in the power balance among Ukraine's 
organized crime/business "clans," and also likely lead to a 
change in Ukraine's policy toward the EU. 
 
3.  (C)  Yrjola said that the Ukrainian foreign minister 
might visit Helsinki shortly before the October 14 e-PINE 
meeting in Washington, and that the visit might profitably 
inform the e-PINE discussion of Ukraine.  Asked if she 
thought there were any Ukraine-related projects that might 
benefit from discussion under the e-PINE umbrella, Hakala 
said that GoF wants to pay more attention to freedom of the 
media, and plans to invite Ukrainian journalists to Helsinki 
to learn some fundamentals.  She said that it might be useful 
to gather journalists from several FSU nations at once for an 
English-language or Russian-language program. 
MACK