“A record amount of Russian tourists will visit Finland around the turn of the year during the holiday season.

The Finnish Tourist Board estimates that there will be 300,000 to 350,000 Russian tourists in Finland around the New Year.

The rail operator VR has set aside 35 extra trains for traffic from Russia, and long queues are expected at Finnish border controls.

“Of the foreign driving licences analysed by the National Bureau of Investigation (KRP), about 40 per cent has turned out to be forgeries. KRP analyses the driving licences of people who want to exchange their licence for a Finnish one.

Petri Varjos from the technical division of KRP’s crime laboratory explains that the quality of those driving licences analysed can be very poor in terms of their level of security. In those cases, sometimes even his lab can’t tell whether they are forgeries or not.

“Bullying is a significant problem on the internet as well. Bad-mouthing someone online, publishing their photo after ‘photoshopping’ it, or creating a fake Facebook profile are all part of school bullying nowadays.

Senior Constable Toni Reinikäinen works with youth issues at the Etelä-Savo Police Department. His job is to monitor the internet, in other words, to be where young people also are.

“During an interview with the regional newspaper Keskisuomalainen, the chairman of the shareholder association Osakesäästäjien keskusliitto, Timo Rothovius, heavily criticises Finland’s tax laws for discriminating against small investors.

‘If your stock portfolio is big enough, you can always make the arrangements needed for tax evasion. The general feeling seems to be that only those stupid people who don’t understand anything pay taxes,’ he says.

Rothovius is disappointed that no headway has been made towards allowing dividend yields of less than 1,500 euros to remain tax-free, even though politicians have spoken about the need for this. Osakesäästäjien keskusliitto has been pushing for this change to be made in the law.

KAUPPALEHTI, 17 December

“Finnair and the Finnish Cabin Crew Union (SLSY) have come to an agreement over annual, voluntary savings worth several million euros. The savings are part of Finnair’s 140 million-euro cost savings programme. As part of the deal, Finnair has also promised it won’t be making any air stewardesses redundant before the end of 2013.

The savings will mean a more efficient use of personnel with the increase of long-haul flights, savings in hotel and transportation costs, and changes to reimbursements for meals and bonuses.

“A considerable amount of the Finns Party’s (PS) MPs can, in political terms, be described as younglings. This is the finding of an investigation carried out by Helsingin Sanomat. Up to 30 of the party’s 39 MPs only joined the party after 2003, and most of them don’t have a significant amount of experience in local politics.

In this sense, PS MPs clearly differ from others in the Parliament. Of other parties’ new MPs, only a few are such novices. Generally, Social Democrat, National Coalition and Centre MPs only become so after a long career in local politics and having been members of the party for 10-15 years.

“The number of young people in Salo who have ended up in a vicious cycle of indebtedness has doubled in two years. Coordinator of the unemployed people’s association Salon alueen Työttömät, Riitta Virtanen, who gives young people under the age of 25 advice on debt, says that the number of so-called payday loans being taken out has exploded in a couple of years.

‘In Salo, 106 young people have already sought help to break out of their vicious cycle of debt,’ Virtanen says.

“Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb said on the Finnish Broadcasting Company’s (Yle) Ykkösaamu TV programme that the agreement made by European leaders this week was a step in the direction of a European fiscal union.

‘This new agreement really is a move from a monetary union towards a fiscal one. Budgets remain national, but the monitoring takes place in Brussels,’ Stubb said during the programme. ‘At the level of principle, Finland joined a European fiscal union at this meeting. The decision will still have to be approved here in Finland,’ Stubb said.

“Finns still have a real appetite for sweets. So much so that profits from the new tax on sweets implemented at the beginning of the year are turning out to be bigger than expected. In the state budget it was estimated that the new tax would raise 115 million euros this year. Provided there’s no sudden decrease in the consumption of fizzy drinks and sweets, the profits will be much higher.

‘In 10 months, the tax has already raised 107 million euros,’ says tax officer Pirkko Kovanen of Finnish Customs.

“The Finnish Police has run out of money. According to National Police Commissioner Mikko Paatero, there are only two options: either Parliament gives the police more money, or the police’s duties have to be cut down.

‘In practice, the police break the law every day, because we don’t have enough resources to deal with our job. The situation is unbearable.’

Paatero emphasises that the police deal with the most urgent and severe cases as best as they can. There may not always be enough time for more than this.