Mikael Storsjö (born 22 December 1957) is a Finnish IT entrepreneur, journalist and non-governmental organization activist. He is a board member of FINROSFORUM. He is known for his clashes with the Finnish and Swedish authorities concerning the hosting of the Kavkaz Center's website on his servers. In 2011–2012, he has also been involved in a court case, in which he was found guilty of arranging illegal entry into Finland of 25 Chechens.
Hosting of Kavkaz Center in Finland
In Finland Storsjö became a public figure in October 2004, when the Lithuanian government banned the Kavkaz Center website, and Storsjö moved the website to his server in Finland. The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (FSIS) then confiscated his servers.
In the public discussion that then ensued, there was a general agreement that the authorities had violated the freedom of speech with their actions.
After these events, Storsjö has continued to support Kavkaz Center by offering them the use of his servers both in Finland and in Sweden.
Kavkaz Center is an internet news agency which publishes news on Chechnya and the Caucasus region from the point of view of the Mujahideen warriors. It is believed that the Kavkaz Center is in the control of the “minister of public relations” of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Movladi Udugov. Udugov belongs to the Islamic warriors of the region.
The publishing activities of the Kavkaz Center are known to be a sore point for Russia, which is involved in a war in the area. Russia has tried to resort to diplomatic means in order to prevent the website from being hosted in various countries, including Sweden and Finland. The Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has said that the website is being used to incite people to conduct terrorist activities. Those who defend the website, however, argue that mediation of news based on pluralistic values is the only way that both parties of the conflict can make their views known to the public.
The Kavkaz Center website was closed in Lithuania in the autumn of 2004, on request by Russia, after the Beslan school hostage crisis, when the website had published a message from Shamil Basayev, in which he assumed responsibility for the attack.
After this Storsjö offered the website the services of his servers in his web hotel. Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja then wrote in his own website, after he found out about the existence of the website on a Finnish server, that “[in Finland] measures were taken immediately to close down the website” and that the website had now been closed down.
Later Tuomioja stated that the actions by the authorities may have been initiated at the same time or after the information about the opening of the website was passed on to the foreign minister, but these actions were not based on any instructions from the Foreign Ministry, to whose jurisdiction they do not by any means belong.
According to the acting head of the FSIS, Mr. Hannu Moilanen, the actions of the security intelligence service were approved from a high level: We were in good co-operation with the head of the state, who blessed our actions and considered them quite necessary.
The Finnish Security Intelligence Service first asked the internet operator TeliaSonera to disconnect Storsjö’s server from the web. TeliaSonera did not agree to this, since in their opinion the Chechen rebels website did not break any law.
After this the Finnish Security Intelligence Service asked Storsjö to remove the Kavkaz Center website from his server, but Storsjö refused to do this, citing freedom of speech as his grounds. On the following day representatives of the Security Intelligence Service went to see an associate of Storsjö in order to discuss the matter, and the associate handed the server over to the Security Intelligence Service so that they could investigate it.
Due to these events, president of the Committee on Constitutional Matters of the Finnish Parliament, MP Kimmo Sasi submitted a written question to the government on the actions of the Security Intelligence Service, to which Minister of the Interior, Mr. Kari Rajamäki replied, “that there was nothing in the actions of the Security Intelligence Service that would merit a reprimand.”
During his visit to Finland, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov thanked Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen for having closed down the Kavkaz Centerin website. When it was no longer possible to operate in Finland, Storsjö transferred Kavkaz Center to his servers in Sweden, but when it was found out that the website was legal in Finland, he opened it on his Finnish servers.