Finland's wood dispute with Russia

Russia has threatened to raise the price of its wood exports to Finland in July 2007. This would be a serious blow to the Finnish industry, which imports around a fifth of its wood supplies from Russia, writes Stig Nygard. Is this the beginning of a wood dispute with Finland, following Russia's meat dispute with Poland, its oil dispute with Lithuania and the monument dispute with Estonia? "Russia's Prime Minister Michail Fradkov explained only last November that higher export customs would aim to encourage Finnish wood companies to invest in Russia. All the Russians want to do is increase the quality of their raw materials before they're exported - this is common procedure. But if Russia wants to become a member of the World Trade Organisation it must learn to follow the rules... People can't ignore the fact that Russia is becoming less like a Western liberal democracy and more like the old Soviet Union, both in its attitude and its behaviour. No one will benefit from this - not even Russia itself."

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