Finnish president says dialogues with Russia must continue

HELSINKI, March 26 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto underlined on Monday the need to continue dialogues with Russia.

Niinisto talked to the media following an announcement by the Finnish government that one Russian diplomat will be expelled from Finland.

The Finnish president said resources should be now focused on mending the rift between East and West that appears to have widened.

Niinisto said Finland had considered the matter "from many aspects". Asked by a reporter whether Finland was now "between hard rock and the hot place", the president said that description is fairly apt.

Niinisto said the diplomat to be asked to leave had not been named yet as of Monday afternoon.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila told a separate press conference on Monday that the decision was not easy for Finland.

Sipila said the Finnish practice is usually not making public the expulsions of diplomats.

Sipila said a longer European process would have been better on dealing with the response, but it was not possible now.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that Russia "strongly protests" diplomats expulsion by the United States and 14 European countries over an ex-spy case, vowing to retaliate.

"We consider this step as unfriendly and not corresponding to the goal and wish to establish the causes and search for the perpetrators of the (ex-spy poisoning) incident on March 4," the ministry said in a statement.

It said the British authorities took a "prejudiced, biased and hypocritical stance". It denied Russia's involvement in the incident. Enditem