Finnish police have opened a criminal investigation into suspected intrusions at the homes of a number of members of the Eduskunta, Finland’s 200-seat parliament.
The cases have unsettled a NATO country that shares a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia and holds parliamentary elections in April 2027.
Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho (Finns) and Deputy Speaker Paula Risikko (NCP) confirmed the suspicions at a press conference on 1 October. Halla-aho declined to give a figure but called the number of suspected cases considerable.
According to the speaker, the incidents span roughly a year and most have come to light in Helsinki. There were no signs of forced entry, and nothing is known to have been stolen or broken. Instead, traces were left behind, some of them barely noticeable.
”It is possible the signs were left deliberately for MPs to notice”, Halla-aho said.
Those affected are not linked by party or gender. Risikko heard of the first suspicion on the evening of 23 September, public broadcaster Yle reports. After parliamentary group leaders were briefed and asked to check with their MPs, more cases quickly surfaced.
Helsinki police upgraded their preliminary inquiry to a formal pre-trial investigation on 7 October. For now the cases are being investigated as attempted aggravated theft. Police are working with parliament, the National Bureau of Investigation and, where needed, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service (Supo), and decline to assess possible perpetrators or motives.
The story broke in Ilta-Sanomat, which first reported that parliamentary group leaders had been warned at a confidential meeting, and then, hours before the press conference, that some homes had already been entered.
According to Yle, fewer than 20 MPs are thought to have been targeted. Other Finnish reports put the figure at around 20.
MPs have reportedly come home to doors standing open or lights switched on. Media reports also mention unflushed toilets, and one MP told broadcaster MTV that furniture had been moved and that there had been several visits.
Is a foreign state behind it?
No authority has named a perpetrator. Halla-aho said speculation is pointless at this stage, while noting that this is the kind of activity state actors are known to engage in.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) called foreign state influence “very possible”. He said that if someone is trying to shake Finland’s sense of security or its support for Ukraine, the effect will be the opposite.
”An attack on a member of parliament is an attack on democracy”, President Alexander Stubb said.
Supo has been more cautious. It told MTV that the intelligence services of authoritarian states are known to enter people’s homes in their own countries, but that it is not aware of the method being used abroad, in Finland or elsewhere in Europe.
Others see a familiar pattern. Former CIA officer John Sipher, who served in both Helsinki and Moscow, told Russia analyst Olga Lautman that minders in Moscow often sent messages by breaking into the homes of Western officials. MEP Mika Aaltola (NCP) goes furthest.
– The pattern is the same. The trail leads to Russia, Aaltola wrote on X.
There are also sceptical voices. Docent Lasse Laaksonen told Suomen Uutiset, the Finns Party’s paper, that there is no firm evidence of Russian involvement and that some cases may be explained by memory lapses or everyday events.
Ona Gardemeister, head of the security contractors’ association Turvaurakoitsijat, told Verkkouutiset that modern locks cannot be forced without leaving marks. The alternative is that a key was used.
What happens next
Parliament has instructed MPs to make sure doors are shut, safety locks are used and home alarm systems are switched on. Longer-term measures are under review, but their content is classified.
The handling of the affair has drawn criticism inside parliament: according to MTV, some MPs learned of the suspicions from the media.
Police will give their next update on Wednesday 14 October. The central questions remain open: who entered the homes, how they got in, and why.