Russia has said a humanitarian emergency was unfolding at one of its checkpoints on the Arctic border with Finland, where it said hundreds of migrants were stranded in freezing temperatures.
Key points:
- More than 500 asylum seekers have crossed from Russia to Finland since November, local media reports
- Finnish border officials believe Russian authorities are “heavily involved” in transporting the migrants to the border
- Finland has closed four of its south-east border crossings with Russia and is contemplating a full closure
“There is a situation at the border with Finland, at the Salla checkpoint, which can be described as a humanitarian crisis,” the head of Russia’s Murmansk region bordering Finland, Andrey Chibis, said.
“About 300 people from more than 10 foreign countries have been waiting not for hours, but for days to cross the border,” he said, blaming Finland for not letting them in.
Finland closed four of its south-east border crossings with Russia after a sudden surge of asylum seekers crossed the border over the past two weeks.
Helsinki accuses Moscow of pushing them there deliberately, a claim that Moscow denies.
During those two weeks, Russian authorities have been acting in an “unusual” way, letting people through to the Finnish border without the required travel documents, the Finnish Border Guard said in a post on X.
Two checkpoints, Salla and Vartius, remain open to asylum seekers in the sparsely populated northern part of Finland.
“We will close the entire eastern border if needed. Finland is prepared to block any interference and efforts to influence. National security will be ensured in all scenarios”, Finland’s Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said in a post on X.
Russia will “of course” respond if Finland closes the remaining border posts between the two countries, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said, but she did not elaborate on what that response would look like.
More than 500 asylum seekers have crossed from Russia to Finland since November, Finnish public broadcaster YLE says, mostly from Somalia, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.
As Helsinki considers closing the entire border, the migrants have been arriving from Russia bundled into cars and trucks and then dropped off and handed bicycles near the Finnish border for the final stretch, the head of the Finnish Border Guard’s legal division, Tomi Kivenjuuri, said.
“It is very likely that the Russian authorities are heavily involved in the transport operation. Very probably the border guards are involved on their side,” he said.
Finland and Russia have jointly banned crossing the border by foot. Last week, Finland’s Border Guard unilaterally banned bicycles but Russia continues to allow migrants to cross by bike.
A couple of women without proper winter attire arrived frostbitten at the Vartius crossing, Captain Jouko Kinnunen said, as temperatures in the area dropped to minus 10 degrees Celsius.
Finland accused Moscow of trying to destabilise the country in retaliation for it joining NATO in April, a move that saw the alliance’s border with Russia double.
Spurred on by Russia’s assault on Ukraine, Finland abandoned decades of military non-alignment to join the Western-led NATO military alliance, prompting Moscow to warn of “countermeasures”.
Finland had to be prepared for “certain types of malice” from Russia since joining NATO, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said, recalling his earlier comments at a press conference in Bonn.
“We are being reminded constantly, daily, that Finland has joined NATO”, he said.
Western countries accused Russia’s close ally Belarus of pushing tens of thousands of undocumented migrants across its border towards Poland and Lithuania in 2021, in retaliation for EU sanctions.
ABC with wires