The tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reports on the flow of people arriving in northern Norway from Russia, asserting that it is "too well-organised to be taking place without the blessing of the Kremlin’s top leadership".
Based on what its reporters witnessed in the Russian border town of Nikel, IS says “talk of war refugees in acute need can be dismissed”.
The paper alleges that the "organisational centre for the so-called 'flow of refugees' is at the Servenoje Sijanie hotel, where its journalists met with people "of many nationalities, but not a single Syrian".
Most of the migrants travelling with families say they came to Russia some time ago from Afghanistan, but there are smaller, mostly-male groups from Egypt, Nigeria, Gambia, Nepal, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, the paper says. Some have lived in Russia for years or even decades.
IS also notes that Slush, an international gathering of start-up entrepreneurs, innovators and investors officially opens on Wednesday at the Helsinki Fair Centre. Some 15,000 people are taking part, from nearly 100 countries. At the first Slush in 2008, there were about 250 participants.
AL: PM’s 'extreme horror scenario'
Turning to politics and policy, the Tampere daily Aamulehti reports that Prime Minister Juha Sipilä has told its Lännen Media group that the government aims to block large international firms from taking over Finland’s taxpayer-funded social and health care services.
"The extreme horror scenario would be that there would be a private monopoly or duopoly that would in practice divide the market while not paying taxes in Finland," Sipilä says.
At present, Finland's biggest private social and healthcare provider is Terveystalo. It is owned by the Swedish private equity firm EQT – which according to the Yle current-affairs programme MOT operates via Luxemburg.
AL also cites a Tass report saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin may meet with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinistö "in the near future". Putin's administrative chief Sergei Ivanov discussed the matter with Niinistö and his staff in Helsinki on Tuesday. They discussed the migrant crisis, EU sanctions, Syria and the Fennovoima nuclear venture.
AL also quotes information obtained by Yle from Niinistö’s office, which confirms that the Finnish head of state has been invited to Russia but that no meeting has been agreed. Putin and Niinistö last met in Moscow in June.
MT: Howling wolf debate
National rural daily Maaseudun Tulevaisuus reports that the Natural Resources Institute (Luke) says that the number of wolf packs has remained more or less steady in Finland. Yet the environmental NGO the Finnish Nature League (Luonto-Liitto) suspects poaching, since some packs have mysteriously disappeared.
Last year wolf packs were confirmed in and around Virrat, Ähtäri, Keuruu and Heinola. This year there have been no sightings in these areas. Suvi Kolu of the Nature League's wolf group says that at least three packs seem to have vanished, and demands that authorities investigate what happened to them.
"The sudden disappearance of wolves from a certain area may indicate criminal activity," she tells MT. The removal of large predators makes it more difficult to control numbers of deer, elk and smaller mammals.
Luke has stipulated that there should be at least 25 stable, breeding packs in Finland to maintain the wolf population, but this target has not been met. According to its latest estimate there are some 220-245 wolves in the country.
The paper also quotes Lauri Kontro, the chair of the Finnish Hunters' Association, who accuses the Nature League of spreading disinformation about the size of the wolf population in an effort to hamper legal hunting.
Kontro is MT's former editor.
