Illegal as a hybrid warfare: Finnish border guards consider migrants to tactics of the Russian Federation (video)
"Russia uses illegal migration as a hybrid war tool," Visegrad writes next to a video that has received more than 900,000 views as of November 18. The video shows how more than 30 illegal migrants are trying to enter Finland by bicycles. The Finns said Newsweek is a deliberate step to take revenge on Helsinki's defensive cooperation. At the same time, shelter from Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and Syria is among those who came to Russian border crossings with Finland daily this week.
Newsweek appealed to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Finland and Estonia, but has not yet been able to check these statements. After decades, NATO Finland, which has more than 1335-kilometer border with Russia, joined the 2023 Alliance, which caused Moscow's anger. Therefore, according to Newsweek experts, it turns the asylum requests into a hybrid weapon, allowing them to pass through the border crossings with their northern neighbor, as with other European countries.
At the same time, Finland said that on Saturday, November 18, it will close four out of nine checkpoints on its southern border with Russia. Usually these are the most loaded connections between the two countries. Persons looking for asylum and arriving from Russia will have to apply for only two northern border crossings, the Finnish government said. "Russia's Ganebna Migrants Instrumentalization," said the President of the European Commission Ursula von Der Lyen in support of Finland.
In September, after her visit to the Italian island of Lamppeduz, she presented the European Commission of ten points, designed to solve the problem of migration at the European level. The plan states that in the future the EU should better distribute those who arrive, but do not forget about the increased control of their external borders.