Former Finland President Halonen flew Russian-owned jets in 2007-2011

Helsinki: Former Finnish President Tarja Halonen and three ex-prime ministers flew private planes owned by Russian companies through tax havens in 2007-2011, Finnish state-owned broadcaster Yle reported on Thursday.
According to the media, Finland’s top officials used Russian-owned aircraft at least 12 times over the course of four years. Besides Halonen, three prime ministers reportedly boarded Russian-owned aircraft during their tenure, including Matti Vanhanen (Prime Minister in 2003-2010, currently serving as Speaker of the Finnish parliament), Mari Kiviniemi (2010-2011) and Jyrki Katainen (2011-2014).
The operator, a charter company called Jetflite Oy, occasionally provided business planes, owned by Russian companies through offshores, to high-ranking Finnish officials, Yle reported. In most cases, however, Jetflite Oy used its own planes, the broadcaster noted.
The journalist investigation even managed to pinpoint the owners of the Russian jets, thanks to the Panama Papers, the Pandora Papers and the Trade Register of Cyprus.
One of the jets used by Finnish senior officials was allegedly owned by Russia’s Nomos bank, now part of Otkrytie Bank. Another aircraft was controlled by an entity called Sopor Trading Ltd. and registered in the British Virgin Islands. According to Yle, the firm was controlled by Alexander Savelyev, chairman of the management board of Russia’s Bank Saint Petersburg.
Both the president’s and the cabinet’s offices said they were not aware of the actual owners of the jets.
Jetflite declined to disclose aircraft owners, noting that it operated aircraft owned by Russian companies and businessmen from the early 2000s until quite recently. (UNI)