Ellee Seymour

Do you recognise this smooth haired man with a certain je ne sais quoi mousy greyness? Does he strike you as the sexiest man in Finland, which is how   Jacques Chirac once famously described him?

He is Matti Vanhanen, the Finnish Prime Minister, who is said to have parted from a lover he met on the internet by sending her a curt text message saying: “that’s it”.

For her, payback time was publishing a kiss-and-tell book designed to embarrass him only days before the Finnish general election on Sunday, but instead his popularity has soared. And one can understand why, when you learn a little about him. 

His ex’s revelations include a romantic description of the Prime Minister telling her that her kiss tasted better than an oven- baked jacket potato, his favourite food. Oh dear, was that before or after dinner? And his interests include chopping wood and DIY, so it probably doesn’t take long before the silences start.

Wikipedia says that Vanhanen has been characterised as uncharismatic and even boring, which he has attempted to turn to his advantage in tense political situations. Vanhanen is known for being teetotaler, saying that he doesn’t like the taste of alcohol.

But before you start feeling for sorry him, please don’t, he seems to be doing ok and his latest romantic interest is said to be Merikukka Forsius, 34, a Green politician, who is very attractive. They have been seen dancing cheek to cheek, and the press noted that they both gave presentation speeches for a showing of Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth - an ironic title, in the circumstances. 

Can you imagine any Prime Minister spending time on internet chat rooms? Is Vanhanen really a lonely and boring man, should we feel sorry for him? Are there any exciting men in Finland, besides Lordi? I wonder what Jacques Chirac knows  about Vanhanen that we don’t…

Is Russia everyone’s best friend today? Will we notice the difference if our oil comes from Russia now it has secured a pipeline through to Greece? It wasn’t so long ago that it halted oil supplies to Belarus after imposing hefty price rises.

At its height, the dispute hit Russian oil supplies to Germany, Poland, Ukraine and other European countries.

The closure of the pipe was condemned by the International Energy Agency as a “grave” incident, that the supply cut-off undermined faith in Russia as an oil exporter and was “something that should never have happened”.

Then there was another incident with Ukraine in 2006 which resulted in their gas supplies being cut off.

How reliant should we allow ourselves to become on Russia for our oil? Or is it gas, as both are mentioned in reports. Of course we should welcome free trade and global markets, but Gazprom is state controlled, it hardly operates on a level playing field.

 America has expressed concerns about Europe becoming too reliant on the Russian energy giant Gazprom, but at the same time,they are collaborating on a nuclear fuel deal. So to what extent do we need Russia, or does Russia need us too?

The BBC Europe editor Mark Mardell makes some excellent points here about Russia and its gas empire:

“The Russian state-controlled giant, Gazprom, has a 40% stake in Wingas. That brings with it worries that Russia could use its gas to twist arms and get its own way, and that consumers could, quite literally, pay the price. At the moment 40% of Germany’s gas comes from Russia. In Britain we have all become pretty complacent with a glut of North Sea oil. It was only a couple of years ago that we started importing any gas, but the government predicts that by 2020 up to 90% of it could be imported. Russia is the most obvious source for the bulk of it.”