Finland: Siltanews – News Desk
Finland’s political establishment continues to purge candidates who adopt Russian propaganda terminology, as the Left Alliance becomes the second party to remove a candidate for minimizing Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The leadership of Finland’s Left Alliance party in the Pirkanmaa region has withdrawn the candidacy of independent candidate Hannu Tiainen for the upcoming spring municipal and regional elections, Yle reports. The decision came after Tiainen’s comments in a 29 December article in the newspaper Aamulehti, where he referred to Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine as a “special military operation.”
Russia calls its military aggression against Ukraine a “special military operation” to frame its actions as limited, controlled, and justified. The term downplays the scale and brutality of the invasion. By avoiding the word “war,” Russia tries to distance its citizens from the full reality of the conflict. Most of the world, especially Western nations, calls the Russian military aggression a war because it involves large-scale military actions, widespread destruction, and a significant loss of civilian and military lives.