dedicated to the 62nd anniversary of the end of the Winter War, Bäckman made a sensational claim that the modern authorities of Finland propagated the idea that the Russian people are genetically inferior and expected Russia to collapse in about twenty years. The other participants at the festival considered that he unreasonably overestimated the extent of anti-Russian sentiment in Finland. According to Bäckman's article "Finland without a mask" (the title alludes to a 1943 proclamation by Otto Wille Kuusinen), published in Russian in May 2002, the Finns in general consider themselves a superior nation, all Russian women prostitutes, and all Russian men thieves and bandits. During 2002, Bäckman gained an odious reputation both in Russia and among his Finnish colleagues. In 2002, Bäckman publicly accused the Foreign Ministry of Finland of Russophobia and racism. He claimed that the ministry was preparing a campaign to smear Russia and return the territories lost in the Paris Peace Treaty. In 2003, Johan Beckman Institute published the book Finland and the Siege of Leningrad 1941-1944 by the Russian historian Nikolai Baryshnikov. The Saint Petersburg legislature awarded Bäckman their Marshal Govorov Literature Prize (2003) for the book. Historian Timo Vihavainen, a historian at the University of Helsinki described it as "a book built on Stalinist propaganda stereotypes". Vihavainen also said that Baryshnikov had misunderstood some of the language in Finnish archive documents. Bäckman and Baryshnikov threatened to sue Vihavainen. Nashi protests in Helsinki In March 2009, as a member of the Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee, Bäckman arranged a series of protests in Helsinki attended by activists of the Russian Nashi, and Night Watch organizations, against what they called the "opening [of] a new anti-Russian front of information warfare on the territory of Finland by [the] Estonian embassy." In addition, Abdullah Tammi and his followers from the prospective Finnish Islamic Party participated. The protests were aimed against seminars, against a book about the Soviet occupation of Estonia, and against films presented by the Estonian embassy in Finland, especially the film Soviet Story by Edvins Snore. In media commentaries for Swedish, Finnish and Russian press, television and radio, Bäckman claimed that the Soviet Union did not occupy Estonia, and belittled the significance of the Soviet deportations from Estonia. Criminal conviction Bäckman has criticized Yle journalist Jessikka Aro, who investigated pro-Russian Internet trolls, accusing her of "Russo-phobic" tendencies and claiming that she was "well-known assistant of American and Baltic