More and more illegal migrants came from Russia. Helsinki accused Moscow of wanting to destabilize the country. Now the Kremlin reacted.
Helsinki – Due to a growing number of undocumented migrants, Finland announced last Thursday (November 16th) that it would close four of its border crossings with Russia with effect from November 19th. The Finnish government had previously accused the Russians of deliberately smuggling asylum seekers across the border and using illegal migrants as “retaliation” for Finland’s accession to NATO. The aim is to destabilize the country. Moscow has now rejected this accusation.
Kremlin spokesman on accusation from Finland: “We do not accept such accusations”
“We do not accept such accusations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told media representatives on Monday (November 20). “The border crossings are used by those who have the right to do so,” he added, calling the Finnish allegations “far-fetched.”
Russia had previously warned that Finland could close all its border crossings. “Such a decision would obviously contradict Finland’s national interests,” Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Russian news agencies.
Finland’s accusation is less far-fetched than Moscow makes it out to be. Western countries had already made a very similar accusation to Russia’s close ally Belarus in 2021. At that time, Belarusian authorities guided tens of thousands of undocumented migrants across its border into Poland and Lithuania.
Relations between Finland and Russia have deteriorated massively since the Ukraine war
Helsinki’s relations with Moscow had deteriorated massively since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, which violated international law, in February 2022. As a consequence of the Ukraine War, often described as a “turning point,” Finland gave up its decades-long military non-alignment and sought to join NATO. In April 2023, Finland officially became a NATO member.
In the run-up to this paradigm shift, Moscow warned of “countermeasures” and indeed: Russia responded to this geostrategic setback by building new-style military buildings near the NATO border with Finland, as satellite images showed in September – the first tangible indications of a move against the Western defense alliance directed rearmament.
Norway’s neighboring country Sweden is also close to joining NATO. After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave up his blockade against Sweden’s accession in October, all that is missing is parliament’s approval. But Hungary also has to agree: In the past, experts had made this dependent on Turkey’s consent.
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