Finland closes its border with Russia again

As they reopened a small part of Finland’s border with Russia on Tuesday, Finnish authorities said they would be on guard: if Moscow resumed funneling migrants, they would close it again. Two days later they announced a plan to close it, saying dozens of migrants would arrive.

“Illegal entry at the Finnish border has immediately resumed,” Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said at a press conference on Thursday. “It is imperative that we close the eastern border.”

They said all border crossings would close on Friday evening and remain closed until January 14.

Friction along the 1,300-kilometer border between Finland and Russia has become the focal point of the tense relationship the two countries have had since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Finland’s entry into NATO earlier this year.

Finland had gradually closed its border from mid-November and closed all its land crossings to travelers at the end of the month, after accusing Russia of helping hundreds of asylum seekers, mainly from Africa and the Middle East, reach the border in an attempt to reach the border. destabilize Finland.

Finnish authorities said a large influx of refugees would put pressure on their reception facilities, polarize society and increase the risk of criminals or “radicalized people” entering.

Russian authorities called these accusations unfounded.

Finnish public opinion largely supported the closures, polls showed, although some left-wing opposition politicians objected that Finland was failing to meet its obligations to provide international protection.

But after weeks of heightened security, Finland announced on Tuesday that the influx had stopped and that it had reopened the border to check whether Russia had ended its ‘operation’.

The border will close again on Friday from 8 p.m. local time.

Poland and the Baltic countries have also accused Belarus in the past of helping migrants enter, using them as a political weapon. Frontex, the European Union’s border agency, has deployed staff to support security at the Finnish border. The agency said security at the border between Russia and Finland, which is part of the bloc, was “a matter of collective European concern.”