(Reuters) – Russia’s Ambassador to Finland Pavel Kuznetsov has been summoned to a meeting on Monday with Finnish state secretary Matti Anttonen over the disruption of Finland’s global positioning system (GPS) signal during recent NATO war games.
“We don’t have anything to hide here. Disruption is a serious matter which disturbs civil aviation. We will act toward Russia, we will discuss this and we expect answers,” Finnish Foreign Minister Timo Soini said in a statement to public broadcaster Yle while on a state visit to the United States.
The Finnish foreign ministry said on Thursday that the disruption of Finland’s GPS signal during recent NATO war games came from Russian territory.
The Kremlin on Monday dismissed an earlier allegation from Finland that Russia may have intentionally disrupted the signal during the war games.
Earlier in November, Finland’s air navigation services issued a warning for air traffic due to a large-scale GPS interruption in the north of the country. Russia was also recently accused by Norway, which had posted a similar warning in its own airspace.
Finland is not a NATO member but it took part as an ally in NATO’s largest exercise in decades which ended on Wednesday. Forces from 31 countries participated in the games close to Russia, in an area stretching from the Baltic Sea to Iceland.
Finland shares an 833-mile (1,340-km) border and a difficult history with Russia.
Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sandra Maler