Last week, the conservative Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen said at a meeting of his ministerial group that Russia is not an economic power, but it is a great power in terms on raw materials. He added that the Russian economy is only the size of that of the Netherlands, but later revised that evaluation.

Foreign Minister Stubb, on Monday, went into more detail, but did back Katainen's stand.

"Russia is still a great power in foreign and security policy, not least of all because it has nuclear weapons and it is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. But Russia's share of the global economy is 2-3 percent, in other words a bit smaller than Spain's, a bit larger than the Netherland's. Of course, we hope for Russia to have a modern, strong and growing economy. It would be in our interest," said Stubb.

The Foreign Minister considered the controversy that arouse following Katainen's remarks as a "storm in a teacup", but he expressed the hope that a public discussion about Russia will continue.

"There clearly continue to be two black spots in our discussion on foreign policy. One of them is Nato and the other is Russia. I think it would be a very good thing if we could discuss these both openly, honestly, without prejudice and on the basis of the facts."

Foreign Minister Stubb went on to comment on what he sees as a need to rid public debate of some of the baggage of the past.

"Sometimes it is a little exasperating that if one Conservative minister says 'Russia' three times, it is a problem. If three Conservative ministers say 'Russia' one time, that's a problem, too. I think we have to get rid of the 1970-ish, maybe slightly Finlandization-type thinking, in which issues cannot be discussed directly," Stubb said.