They arrive in small groups of about 25 men, mostly young, coming mainly from Middle East. They are grouped together in what, until mid-November, was the only one border crossing that was still open in the middle Finland AND RussiaIn Raja-Jooseppi, among snow-capped mountains and in remote places Lapland. Some drag a bicycle, a vehicle obviously unsuited to snowy roads and freezing temperatures. They are somewhat surreal images, but they remind us of others from 2015, in the midst of the migration crisis due to the civil war in Syria. They were similar groups of asylum seekers, crossing the Arctic Circle and entering Norway from Russia by bicycle. The reason is that Russian authorities do not allow people to cross the border on foot, but rather on a wheeled vehicle. Their bicycles were abandoned in the snow as soon as they reached Norwegian territory.
The government of Finland, a coalition of conservatives Petteri Orpothe far right and two other minority parties have raised the first warning signals about a «hybrid warfare» last summer. Suddenly there was an unusual flow of asylum seekers from Syria, Yemen, Somalia or Morocco from Russia. Between August and November there were a total of 900. The figure should be acceptable in a Country of 5.5 million inhabitants, unless it is accompanied by the alleged destabilizing purpose of this NATO partner and the EU.
Within a few weeks Helsinki decreed its closure seven of his eight steps. He left open only the most inaccessible and remote one, that of Lapland, as well as that of Vainikkala, the latter only for the transport of goods. These progressive closures have caused the numbers to plummet: in November alone, when the closure was partial, 800 refugees arrived through Russia. Helsinki has chosen to close all its legal phases for 15 days. As soon as the deadline expired and Lapland reopened, 200 registrations were registered in 48 hours.
Belarus
«Russia deliberately drags them to our border for destabilizing purposes,» said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elina Valtonen, in statements to the AP agency. It is a new edition of the hybrid warfare that countries have denounced in 2022 Baltic countries and Poland. Then there were thousands of refugees pushed towards its borders by Belarus, Moscow’s ally. Many of them remained in no man’s land, rejected by those European countries, amidst blows and pushes from border guards on both sides.
Apparently it is only the Russian authorities who favor these unusual flows of asylum seekers to Finland, but also the Russian authorities mafias who profit from it. Some $2,000 Each of them pays for the journey by bus or van from Moscow to the Finnish border, including the bicycle for the final stretch, according to the ‘Neue Zürcher Zeitung’ newspaper.
Helsinki blames Moscow for this new hybrid warfare. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, announced in recent days the creation of a new «militarized district» near the border with Finland, a country it accuses of having abandoned neutrality since it applied to join NATO. It was in 2022, following the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, that it formalized its request, in parallel with Sweden. Finland has been a full member of the Alliance since last April Sweden It awaits ratification by Turkey and Hungary.
From fruitful bilateral cooperation to rejection
The situation in Finland is, however, different from those in Baltic countries OR Poland. Not only because it has the longest border with Russia among all the EU partners, but also because, unlike these countries, it pampered its relations with Moscow until the invasion of Ukraine. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania they rushed to process their entry into the Atlantic Alliance shortly after the alliance’s dissolution USSR, of which they had been a part. Finland, like Sweden, opted for military neutrality, even though they were in fact countries “associated” with NATO and were already participating in joint operations.
THE 1,340 kilometers of border shared with Russia, like a clear vertical cut from north to south of Finland, they constituted a rather abstract danger, albeit present in the collective memory. The Nordic country was a Russian province between 1809 and 1917, in 1939 it was invaded by the Soviet Union, but then played the card of neutrality during the period Cold War. For decades, a profitable trade relationship for both sides has been maintained between Helsinki and Moscow. About 100,000 Russian-speaking citizens live in Finland. While the Baltic countries, even with high percentages of populations of Russian origin, began to restrict the entry of citizens from Russia into their territory starting from 2022, Finland continued to accept entry to those who had a visa for the Schengen area.
The social democratic government Sanna Marino formalized the request to join NATO, but the conservative Orpo took it upon himself to close the border crossings one by one. His presence in his coalition of real far-right Finns It may have been a further factor in that direction, at a time when right-wing populism is leaving its mark on European migration policy. But under Marín the border devices had already begun to be strengthened. In the midst of the NATO integration process, the government of the Social Democratic leader decided to build a fence 200 kilometers in the most vulnerable part of the border with Russia, in the region of the city of Imatra. The intention was to cover 15% of the entire border, which runs through huge forests and already impassable areas.
A deterrent fence and a powerful army
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The fence is – or will be, once its construction is completed – a rather dissuasive measure for migratory transits or uncontrolled arrivals of asylum seekers. Among his objectives is not to contain a possible Russian incursion, since for this he relies on strong investments in defense. Finland was already under Marin or his predecessor, also a social democrat Antti Rinne, the country with the most modern army and the largest contingent in the region. Added to its 70,000 active soldiers are approximately 280,000 reservists. It has been investing in armaments for years, has purchased 60 F-35s from the United States and has protected itself from cyber attacks as if it feared that one could arrive from Russia at any moment.
Groups of asylum seekers or Russia’s alleged destabilizing intentions are just one aspect of the growing hostility between Finland and its neighbor. In parallel with joining NATO, Helsinki further strengthened military cooperation United States of America. Last December, Finland signed an agreement guaranteeing Washington the use of 15 military bases on the territory of the Nordic country. Sweden, without yet completing its entry into the Alliance and with a conservative government supported by the far right, signed a similar pact. A third Nordic government, the Danish one, led by the Social Democrats, did the same. Mette Frederiksen.
