SOVIET-FINNISH RELATIONS: MEDIA TREATMENT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP86M00886R001000010021-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 8, 2008
• Sequence Number: 21
• Publication Date: August 14, 1984
• Content Type: REPORT

RUM I
ROUTING AND RECORD SHEET
SUBJECT- (Optional)
FROM:
Director, Foreign Broadcast
Information Service
TO; (Officer designation, room number, and
building)
Executive Registry
7E12 - Headquarters
2. Executive Assistant: to
the DDCI
DATE
EXTENSION
OFFICER'S
INITIALS
1, DATE
FBIS-1020/84
14 August 1984
25
-25
COMMENTS (Number each comment to show from whom'
to who. Draw a line across column after each comment.)
RECEIVED ' FORWARDED
This responds to your
6 August request for FBIS comments
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14 August 1984
SOVIET-FINNISH RELATIONS: MEDIA TREATMENT
An FBIS review of Soviet media materials confirms that recent press criticisms
of Finland are more pointed than usual. A search of major Soviet commentaries
in 1983 produced no instances of direct or indirect criticism comparable to
those cited i Although FBIS does not monitor Finnish 25X1
media as closely as it does Soviet media, all available evidence confirms the
impression that there has been no change in Finland's policy of refraining
from publishing articles or transmitting programs that clearly are hostile to
the Soviet Union.
Moscow has in the past expressed great satisfaction with the state of
Soviet-Finnish relations, has avoided indications of difficulties, and only
rarely and indirectly criticizes Finnish authorities. Moscow's traditionally
upbeat portrayal of Soviet-Finnish relations was illustrated after the two
sides agreed in June 1983 to extend the 1948 Soviet-Finnish treaty for 20
years. Soviet commentary then asserted that bilateral relations are "not
subject" to fluctuations in international politics and that even in
"complicated conditions" they remain "a factor of stability and reliability."
Moscow's recent vocal expressions of concern over "anti-Soviet" manifestations
in Finland appear to reflect a general Soviet sensitivity to any conceivable
signs of ideological challenge and a specific sensitivity to the possible
effect of Finnish television broadcasts on Estonia. Moscow has become
increasingly preoccupied with the ideological struggle as East-West tensions
have increased. Moscow's heightened attention to the ideological struggle
became especially obvious at the June 1983 CPSU Central Committee plenum,
which was devoted to this subject. At that plenum, General Secretary Andropov
asserted that the Soviet Union was engaged in an ideological struggle (with
the United States primarily) for the "hearts and minds of billions of people."
SECRET
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