Finland closes half of its border crossing points with Russia

Finland closed, on the night of Friday November 17 to Saturday November 18, four border crossings with Russia, or half of its border crossing points with this country. Helsinki accuses Moscow of trying to destabilize the country by letting undocumented migrants cross the border. “An increasing number of undocumented migrants have been showing up in southeastern Finland in recent weeks, most of them coming by bicycle. Today we had another 60”, Jussi Vainkka, a border guard official at the Nuijamaa border post, told AFP. Before, Russia “did not let these migrants come to Finland without the necessary papershe added. That’s the biggest change we’ve seen.”

Finland, which shares a 1,340 km border with Russia and joined NATO in April, has seen an influx of visa-free migrants from the Middle East and Africa, particularly Iraq, since the end of August. , Somalia and Yemen. “We are prepared for many scenarios. Let’s see what happens and we will react if necessary”, said the border guard official. These comments echo those of Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who said on Thursday that Finland had “prepared for different kinds of actions, malicious acts on the part of Russia, so the situation is not a surprise”.

The four border crossings are planned to be closed until February 18, 2024, with four other crossing points remaining open in northern Finland. Relations between the two neighbors have deteriorated considerably since February 2022 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, an attack which led Finland, worried about its own security, to join NATO.