in the Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen. In October 2019, Niinistö condemned Turkey’s military campaign in Kurdish–controlled areas of northern Syria. He said that two NATO member states are "quite involved" in Syria. On 24 February 2022, the Russian president Putin ordered the Russian Armed Forces to begin an invasion of Ukraine. On 4 March 2022, Niinistö did a one day visit to Washington DC to meet President Joe Biden and number of other US politicians and security personnel. The meetings was initiated by Niinistö's office earlier the same week. In a press conference with Finnish media, Niinistö told that in the meeting the presidents discussed about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its impact on European and Finnish security. Furthermore they agreed on deepening Finnish-US security co-operation and bilateral relations. On 12 May 2022, ten weeks after the beginning of the invasion, president Niinistö and prime minister Sanna Marin advocated in a joint statement for a 'NATO membership without delay'. On 29 May 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Niinistö that "overlooking threatening terrorist organisations that pose a threat to a NATO member is not in the spirit of the alliance." On 8 June 2022, Niinistö said he was surprised by Turkey's opposition to Finland's NATO membership. Pardons As the President of Finland, Niinistö holds the power of pardon for individual criminal sentences and related sanctions. In 2019 and 2020, he did not pardon anyone, and has pardoned on average only three people per year. In comparison, his predecessor Tarja Halonen reached a figure of 20 pardons per year on average. Niinistö has explained that he is in good agreement with the policy of the Supreme Court of Finland, which has always processed the case first before the President sees it. Niinistö has supported the abolition of the presidential pardon in his presidential campaigns, calling the institution an outdated "royal tradition". Personal life Niinistö married his first wife, Marja-Leena (née Alanko), in 1974 and they had two sons. Marja-Leena was killed in a car crash in January 1995. Niinistö wrote about the time after the death of his first wife in his book Viiden vuoden yksinäisyys (translation: "Five years of loneliness"). While a cabinet minister, Niinistö, as a widower, was romantically involved with MP Tanja Karpela, a former beauty queen and later Minister of Culture. Karpela's Centre Party was in opposition and Niinistö was considered the second-most influential