Nobel Peace laureate Martti Ahtisaari, who served as Finland's 10th president between 1994and 2000, died on Monday at the age of 86, the Finnish president's office said in a statement.
Nobel Peace laureate Martti Ahtisaari, who served as Finland's 10th president between 1994 and 2000, died today at the age of 86, the Finnish president's office said in a statement.
At home, Mr Ahtisaari was always a political outsider. But it was that very lack of political ties helped him to win Finland's first direct presidential election, in 1994, at the helm of the opposition Social Democrats. That took place years before Finland eventually joined the alliance in 2023, in response to neighbouring Russia's invasion of Ukraine.Mr Ahtisaari was born in 1937 in Viipuri, now part of Russia, and his family was forced to flee when Soviet forces attacked when he was two.
One of his first major diplomatic achievements was helping Namibia gain independence after years of bloody conflict with South Africa.
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