The Members of Parliament appeared to be blissfully unaware of the origins of their election funding.
      It may have come as a surprise to them, too, to learn that behind the companies shovelling money in their direction are to be found a group of rather colourful business types, including the big-league investors Kai Mäkelä, Ahti Vilppula, and Ari Salmivuori.

These tax exile Finnish businessmen have connections in Russia, Kazahkstan, Croatia and who knows where. But the revelations that caught my eye were their involvement in Alma Media and Talentum. Alma Media is a print media, online media and formerly TV channel operator group (net sales 329 M€). Talentum is the biggest stable of print and online B2B media in the Nordics. Disclaimer: I used to write their annual Media Tool Kit for international sales.

Vilppula and Mäkelä are both sizeable owners of Talentum and Alma Media, two influential media groups. They have also owned large holdings in the Ruukki Group. Ari Salmivuori's private investment company Ajanta has for its part distinguished itself by investing in a number of Finnish listed companies, including the sports equipment firm Amer (see earlier article).
      By reputation, Vilppula, Mäkelä, and Salmivuori are not regarded exactly as shining white knights or business angels, but as heavyweight investors who are used to reaping serious returns on the sums they lay out.

Helsingin Sanomat is part of the huge SanomaWSOY media group controlled by Grand Old Man of Finnish newspapers - Aatos Erkko (a member of the Trilateral Commission and the Bilderberg group)

As I have noted before, there were two power camps in Finland prior to the financial crisis of the early Nineties. These two opposing camps were divided between the banks KOP and SYP, and their influence was felt far beyond business investment, into politics and so on - perhaps even to foreign policy.

What we are seeing now, possibly, is a business coagulation around two media camps. SanomaWSOY is by far the most powerful of the two, and the revelatory article at the top of this diary is surely their broadside against the pesky privateers that threaten its trade and 'colonial' interests.

One of the recipients of dodgy campaign donations is current Defence Minister,  Jyri Häkämies. What does he have to say about it?

 "I think it is probably the same motives as the trade unions have when they give their backing to Finnish candidates with a union background. Why should companies not be able to give the same kind of support, and to promote candidates who reflect their own outlook on the world?"

Finnish politics gets interesting.