The founder of the Finnbay website, Onur Yalcintas, met officials from the foreign ministry on Wednesday to clarify his online diatribes against the ministry, among other targets.
The Finnbay website has raised suspicions in Finland since publishing several questionable articles about the country’s relationship with Russia.
On Wednesday Yalcintas and Irina Tabakova, the publisher of Russian-language publication Novosti Helsinki met the Foreign Ministry's communications chief Jouni Mölsä. He explained to Yle that the ministry now understands that the two organisations share content.
The Foreign Ministry has co-operated with Novosti Helsinki since 2011. The publication has been distributed in Finnish consulates and embassies in Russia.
Novosti Helsinki has admitted receiving funding from the Russian foreign ministry, but Mölsä told Yle that the ministry had not uncovered anything that would make them re-evaluate their co-operation with Novosti Helsinki.
The ministry has looked into the website’s background and have not found any systematic efforts to disseminate misleading information. One Finnbay story suggested that Finland would not comply with EU sanctions against Russia.
"The ministry's interest is in this interpretation of Finland's line in this Ukraine issue, and they clearly have the wrong idea about that," said Mölsä.
The security police have also investigated the site, and found no evidence of systematic Russian involvement in Finnbay’s news-gathering process. Neither the ministry nor Supo found evidence of anything other than poor journalism.
Yalcintas has not answered repeated requests for an interview with Yle.
