The Finnish President Tarja Halonen interviewed by Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
Folk wisdom in Finland has it that if a window in an old house has a fortochka (small hinged pane for ventilation) it is a sure sign that it was built by Russians.
Many historical places in Finland are directly or indirectly connected with the Russian Empire. This year saw the 200th anniversary since Finland became part of the Russian Empire as a Grand Duchy. Not surprisingly, the Finnish President Tarja Halonen began her interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta in Russian: "I do not speak Russian very well. I understand it a little bit," she intoned slowly and carefully and, reaching the end of her sentence, she smiled broadly. Then, switching to Finnish, she said: "Let us begin".
RG: Four years ago when you met with President Vladimir Putin the press quoted you as saying that you had discussed with the Russian leader "everything, including cows." What would you like to discuss during Russian President Medvedev's visit to Finland? Will the programme include the traditional Finnish sauna? Will you show him your famous vegetable garden?
Tarja Halonen: This will be our first official meeting with Mr Medvedev and of course it will be more formal than President Vladimir Putin's last visit. I met with President Medvedev in Khanty-Mansiisk, and I have known him before he became the head of state. But, in line with Finnish tradition, I will begin more carefully because this is his first visit to our country. I think it is also in keeping with Russian tradition: one should start with some caution. Once people get to know each other and become friends they can discuss anything.
RG: Finland comes out for stronger European security. What do you think about the proposals made by President Dmitry Medvedev on concluding a new security treaty in Europe?
Tarja Halonen: President Medvedev's initiative is widely discussed, but few details are known as yet. So I am very glad that the Russian leader will give a public speech at Helsinki University, formerly the Imperial University.
I leave it entirely to President Medvedev to choose his topic. But I think that in his speech at the university he will discuss European security. I would be very much interested to hear his elaborations and all the interested parties will also have a chance to hear it. So I look forward to the speech by the Russian head of state with great interest.
RG: You are said to have been a fan of the Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara when you were young. What have you learnt from him? Has your attitude toward him changed over the years?
Tarja Halonen: You want an honest answer? OK. I'll give it to you, although it is not very good for my image. It is true that I was interested in Latin America and the emergent democracy in Latin America. But I must say that to me, a young woman at the time, Che Guevara was just a handsome man. On a more serious note, I had a lot to do with Latin America. I was in contact with Che Guevara. There is a lot of talk in the world about revolution. But what really does a nation good is development. The future for all of us lies in purposeful work with developing countries and in cooperation in developing these regions. This is our perspective.
RG: The press has reported that during one of President Putin's visits to Finland you treated him to mushroom soup. Do you like cooking yourself? Perhaps you could share some culinary recipes with our readers?
Tarja Halonen: I am at a loss. Although we Finns like our own cuisine it is not as famous as the Russian cuisine. I think it was a good decision to treat my Russian guest to mushroom soup. We know very well that Russians like mushrooms and soup. For Finns, decurrent is our favourite mushroom. When I cook decurrents I simply fry them with butter and onions.
I did not do enough homework to explain the recipe to you. But a lot of our foods are similar. We cook beef-Stroganoff, like you. And we also cook pirozhki. We in Finland celebrated Easter just recently. And for Easter we have our special dessert which is a specially cooked brown mass. By the way, we like cottage cheese as much as you Russians do.
RG: One more short question.
Tarja Halonen: It must be about our cats?
RG: You guessed wrong. You have been awarded the Alexander Pushkin medal for the contribution to the dissemination of the Russian language. Did you ever wish you could speak Russian more fluently?
Tarja Halonen: I studied Russian 30 years ago and I have now resumed my studies: I study it on Wednesday mornings before work. We have a Russian language study group. I am a member of that group. We have a chance here to study other languages. I personally study Estonian in addition to Russian. I already speak Swedish.
Yevgeny Shestakov