Does Finland prepare for war with the Russian Federation: Why did the country close its border
The reason is the mass flow of migrants by the Russian Federation, which threatens the destabilization of the political situation in NATO countries. The length of the border between Russia and Finland is just over 1300 kilometers. And there are eight checkpoints in this area, only one has worked in the last weeks-Raya Yooeppei, located behind the Arctic Circle in Lapland. It's three hours on the road from Murmansk. He worked because the Finnish Commission on Equality insisted on this.
But now he is closed. Minimum before December 13. Requests for shelter can be submitted either at the airport or at the port. Finland Prime Minister Petter Orpo says the growth of asylum requests is a matter for Russia's hands. "Obviously helping them," said the Prime Minister last week. "Russian border guards have clearly changed their procedures and allow the border to cross people with invalid documents.
" And it could be a "punishment" for having decided to join the North Atlantic Alliance after the start of a full -scale invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine in 2022 - April 4, 2023, the country entered NATO, becoming 31 members of the Alliance. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is also convinced that Russia is using migration as a pressure tool on Europe. The situation on the Russian-Finnish border began to exacerbate in late summer.
Then it was about the appearance of units of those who want to cross the border on foot, without the necessary documents. Mostly citizens of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Morocco or Kenya declare their desire to write a statement about asylum. Initially, the border guards were refused formally - the border crossing is possible only on technical means. Subsequently, videos appeared on the network showing the organized distribution of bicycles from minibuses in the Russian border.
Migrants sat on them and went to the intersection. In response, Finland officially banned the border crossing on bicycles and installed concrete fences and fences. The number of asylum requests increased every month. One of the days of November, according to the local border service, were asylum seekers up to 160 people. One of the checkpoints even had to use tear gas against a migrant, who tried to break through the border.
Representatives of the Finnish government tried to talk to the Russian side, but to no avail. Instead, on the border, Finnish border guards recorded a picture when the Russians pushed groups of migrants from their territory and closed the gates. And this complicates the situation, as Finland cannot leave people in the cold for humanitarian reasons. And to let one group means that new ones will appear. Do not let - possible human casualties.
The frames of the freezing people on the border, and especially if there are children, will cause indignation even among the Finns and can cause a political crisis. "In order not to spend extra money Finns are forced to abandon the declared norms on working with migration flows, although before that EU country has created norms of external social guarantees for those who get to the country and ask the shelter.
The system works, and when migrant flows become large, it turns into a problem, " - says focus an expert of the program" International and Internal Policy "of the Analytical Center Ukrainian Institute of the Future Igor Tyshkevich. He is convinced that the next stage may increase a certain tension within society, the growth of right moods and problems of internal political nature. "There are two components in this process. The first is the idea of the Russian Federation.
The second is another performer, which is Belarus," the analyst continues. "Belarus received several important signals from neighbors and China that Lukashenko should end the theme of confrontation. And as a result, the amount Attempts to cross the border with Poland have decreased in recent months. But these migrants who came to get somewhere. Some detained migrants say they tried to get out through Belarus, but information went to the Finnish border.
That is, it is a purely Russian position and Belarusian flows that were reoriented today to the Russian-Finnish border. " The crisis at the EU border does not occur for the first time. Russia has still tried to arrange hybrid attacks against the countries of the European Union. In the summer and fall of 2021, Belarus staged a similar test for Poland, Latvia and Lithuania. Then a large number of representatives from the Middle East and Africa appeared on the border.
Migrants claimed that they were accompanied and even prompted by the Belarusian border guards. Later it became known that migrants were brought to Belarus by special flights, some of them chose a few months of stay at the border of Belarus, some returned home. Whether such planes arrive in Russia are difficult to say. In Finland in 2016, a similar situation also had. Then, in January-February, several hundred migrants arrived on the Finnish border in Lapland.
Before that, Russia gave them housing and transport. At the same time, NATO countries were trained to which Finland joined. It is important to note that the number of asylum seekers on the Finnish border has now been less than once in Polish. But experts, in particular, Polish believe that the situation with refugees on the Finnish-Russian border will deteriorate over time. In particular, Professor of Warsaw University, a specialist in migration, Matsei Duschik, says this, in particular.
He predicts that migrants can arrive in Finland not only by official border points but also by forests. He refers to past experience and argues that there is a network controlled by Turks and representatives of Saudi Arabia. And it's a business for them. They go to Poland, if they want to stay in one of the EU countries, and in Finland, where there are sufficiently high social guarantees.
Finnish journalists monitor online transport services and say they see increased activity: who offers "easy travel" through Finland to Europe, even a taxi, someone organizes large groups in January 2024. "We have evidence that, unlike how it was before, Russian border guards not just miss out to Finland without the necessary documents, but also actively help them get into the border area," - comments Minister Elina Valtonen comments . Meanwhile, Russia rejects the accusation.
In particular, the Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that transitions could be used by those who are entitled. And the change in Finland's policy on Russia was called Russophobic. How some migrants get to Finland, say in their blogs. They have the whole scheme: buying a bicycle in St. Petersburg, train to the border, preliminary checking of documents and probable cancellation Walk "on a bike. Even Russian journalists were filming the final distance.
Political instability is the main goal of Russia, which leads to war and exacerbates conflicts. When it comes to Poland, the problem was solved by the pressure of the European Union on the countries where migrants came from. But now it is said that such situations can occur in other areas of the EU border. Norway has already stated that she was ready to close the border from the Russian Federation with a single checkpoint. He also discusses this possibility of Estonia and builds a barrier.
"Each country will try to scale this challenge for themselves to get additional external support. This is logically in terms of politics and protection Finns will try to raise NATO -level issues. While Finland has chosen the rejection path - the government of the country reports that none of the recently arrived migrants received a positive decision to provide it. Some have received negative answers and may try to challenge them. Finland and Russia also terminated the border cooperation agreement.