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Russian Ambassador to Finland Summoned Over GPS Disruption 


FILE - Finland's Foreign Minister Timo Soini attends a news conference in Vantaa, Finland, Aug. 14, 2018.
FILE - Finland's Foreign Minister Timo Soini attends a news conference in Vantaa, Finland, Aug. 14, 2018.

Russian 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 towards 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 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 because of 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.

inland is not a NATO member but it took part as an ally in NATO's largest exercise in decades, which ended 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.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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