Paananen met businessman
Gennady Timchenko in the 1980s. He represents Timchenko on the board of the holding company of
Hartwall Arena. SET Petrochemicals has financed the operations of the Center Party of Finland and
Sauli Niinistö's presidential election campaign. SET Petrochemicals is also the largest owner of the charter airline
Airfix Aviation. Airfix Aviation is on the US sanctions list. In the early 2000s, Southeast Trading consulted the Russian company
Kinex Holding on the establishment of a planned tourist village on the Big Island. Paananen has also been the owner of the Karelia Trade store, which operated from 1978 to 1998 and employed at best 500 people in Finland and Russia. Paananen has also been the managing director of a private border crossing point in Uukuniemi from 1993 to 2007, which is the only private border crossing point on the Russian-Finnish border. ==References==