Finland has beefed up its border fence on its eastern border with Russia to stop Moscow’s hybrid warfare tactic of sending migrants to the frontier. Amid tensions between the neighbors, Finland’s Interior Minister Mari Rantanen unveiled a 120-mile fence near the Nuijamaa border crossing point in the southeast of the country. In December 2023, Finland closed its 1,340 km (832 mile) border with Russia—the longest frontier with Russia of any EU or NATO country—after more than 1,300 migrants arrived there without visas.
Helsinki accused Moscow of weaponizing asylum seekers by sending them to the frontier to destabilize the Nordic country—accusations the Kremlin denied. Earlier that year, Helsinki had angered Moscow by ending its decades-long neutrality and joining NATO due to the security threat posed by Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Sari Arho Havrén, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told Newsweek on Tuesday that at the Finnish border "the threat clearly remains high." Newsweek has contacted the Russian foreign ministry for comment.
Rantanen said on Monday that the construction of the border fence was required due to the threat posed by Russia to Europe's security, adding "every state must take care of its own security and the inviolability of its borders," Finnish outlet YLE reported. Havrén said it is seen as the best solution for crowd control, "which obviously refers to the threat of instrumentalized migration orchestrated by Russia." Helsinki has accused Moscow of using migration by pushing asylum seekers to the border with Finland. The Finnish government is proposing to extend by a year the Border Security Act restricting entry into the country from what it says are, "the most serious incidents of instrumentalized migration" until the end of 2028.
"No changes are proposed to the law itself," said Havrén, "it already grants exceptional powers to restrict the reception of asylum applications and turn back people if Russia uses migration as a tool for hybrid pressure." All land border crossings between Finland and Russia remain closed indefinitely by a government decision until further notice. "I believe none of these measures would remain in place if there weren't concern that Russia would repeat them," added Havrén. Finland is also strengthening its armed defenses as part of its NATO membership.
Finnish defense company Patria has built its first F-35 fighter jet engine, according to reports last week. The country has also ordered 64 F-35A fighter jets from U.S. defense company Lockheed Martin, with the first aircraft due to arrive later this year. In October 2022, Finland's political party leaders reached a cross-party consensus to build partial fencing along the eastern border and work started with a pilot project in Pelkola, near the city of Imatra, in April 2023.
The longest sections of the fence—around 80 miles long, are in the southeast, with sections also in the North Karelia, Kainuu and Finnish Lapland regions. Costing 356 million euros ($413 million), it features patrol roads, loudspeakers, night lighting and surveillance cameras. Similar fences have been erected in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as well as Poland on their borders with Belarus.
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