Finland has said it will close all but one crossing point on its border with Russia in an effort to halt a flow of asylum seekers to the Nordic nation, as Estonia accused Moscow of mounting “a hybrid attack operation” on Europe’s eastern border.
The announcement on Wednesday came after weeks of tension on the 830-mile (1,330km) border across which Helsinki accuses Moscow of guiding refugees and migrants in an apparent act of revenge for the Nordic nation’s cooperation with the US.
From midnight on Friday, said the Finnish prime minister, Petteri Orpo, the only open border crossing of Finland’s eight stations would be its northernmost at Raja-Jooseppi.
Estonia levelled similar accusations at Russia on Wednesday, saying Moscow was involved in “a hybrid attack operation” to bring people to its border in an attempt to undermine security and unsettle the Baltic state’s population.
Since Thursday 75 people, largely from Somalia and Syria, had attempted to enter Estonia from Russia through the Narva crossing point, the Estonian public broadcaster ERR reported. None had asked for asylum and all had been turned back, the interior ministry said.
Estonia has made preparations to follow in the footsteps of Finland and close border crossings if “the migration pressure from Russia escalates”, the interior minister, Lauri Läänemets, told Reuters through a spokesperson.
“Unfortunately, there are many signs that Russian border officials and possibly other agencies are involved,” said the minister. “Quite frankly, [the] ongoing migration pressure on Europe’s eastern border is a hybrid attack operation,” he added.
Russian officials were not immediately available to comment.
In response to a rise in the number of people crossing its border with Russia, Finland, which joined Nato earlier this year, had already completely closed four of its southernmost border crossing points.
So far this month, more than 600 asylum seekers have come to Finland over the Russian border, according to the Finnish border guard. This marks a significant increase on the normal number, they say, which is usually between zero and 10 a month. On Tuesday, 62 asylum seekers arrived in Finland from Russia via the eastern border.
Läänemets said migrants and refugees were appearing at Estonian border points “in an orchestrated manner and in groups of 7 to 11 people”.
The situation at the Estonia-Russia border was “similar” to that in Latvia and Lithuania at their borders with Belarus, the minister said. The two countries and Poland have accused Belarus of orchestrating the arrival of thousands of Middle Eastern and African people at their borders since 2021.
Belarus has denied the allegation.
Reuters contributed to this report
