A sudden increase in the number of Russian asylum seekers in Finland has prompted the Finnish government to close four border crossings with Russia. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced this during a press conference on Thursday, Finnish media report. Border crossings Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa, Imatra and Niirala will be closed to all forms of traffic until at least February 18. Only two border crossings further north remain open for asylum seekers.
The Finnish Border Guard noted 74 Russian asylum seekers at the border in southeastern Finland on Wednesday. There were 55 on Tuesday and 39 on Monday. Taken together, Finland has received more Russian asylum seekers in the past three days than in the months of August to mid-November combined.
Russia and Finland share a border of 1,340 kilometers, the longest European border with Russia. Normally, Russian border guards stop asylum seekers without a valid EU visa, but they appear to have stopped doing so. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö even said on Wednesday that he believed Russia had begun directing asylum seekers to Finnish border crossings. Prime Minister Orpo called the Russian action “extremely rude”, the Finnish Minister of Defense spoke of a “form of hybrid warfare”.
Russian retaliation
Finland believes it is dealing with a Russian retaliation for the impending defense deal with the United States. The relationship between Finland and Russia has deteriorated considerably since the invasion of Ukraine and Finland’s subsequent NATO accession. Finnish security services recently noted that online espionage attempts from Russia have increased.
Although the number of Russian asylum seekers has increased remarkably rapidly, the numbers remain relatively low. Nevertheless, the situation brings back memories of 2021, when Belarus sent thousands of asylum seekers to Lithuania, Poland and Latvia.
Russia did the same in the far north of Finland and Norway in 2015 and 2016. Hundreds of Russian asylum seekers then arrived at border crossings without the necessary documents. The recent increase, according to researcher Charly Salonius-Pasternak of the Finnish Institute for International Affairs, is a reminder of that time, she said to the BBC. According to Salonius-Pasternak, this partly explains the sharp Finnish reaction.
Destabilize European societies
“Russia has no master plan,” Salonius-Pasternak told the BBC, but he believes President Vladimir Putin’s regime does benefit from destabilizing European societies, for example by creating or fueling internal political feuds over migration. “This is a cheap way for Russia to do that,” the researcher said.
Finnish President Niinistö announced on Wednesday that he wanted to take “very clear measures” against Russia. Last week, the border police imposed a ban on crossing the border by bicycle after dozens of migrants entered that way. If the border post closures do not have the desired effect, Prime Minister Orpo said, Finland will tighten the measures further.