Finland wants to build “robust fence” on border with Russia

Another dictator had tested the method just a few months ago.

Against the background of the Ukraine war, Finland wants to strengthen the border barriers with neighboring Russia. The country needs to protect itself against “hybrid threats,” Anne Ihanus, senior adviser at Finland’s interior ministry, told AFP on Friday. A “robust fence with a real barrier effect” is planned, explained Sanna Palo, head of the legal department of the Finnish border guard.

So far, the 1,300-kilometer-long border with Russia has primarily been protected by light wooden fences. The war in Ukraine added to the “urgency” of the matter, Ihanus said.

Fear of hybrid warfare

This is Finland’s response to fears that Russia could use hybrid warfare to attract migrants in a targeted manner in order to persuade them to cross the border into Finland or the EU. Alexander Lukashenko, ruler in Belarus, demonstrated this in the migration crisis on the borders with Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. Interior Minister Krista Mikkonen says the government will decide on the advice of the border guards where barriers should be placed on the border with Russia.

The planned border fence will “in all likelihood” not extend across the entire border, explained Palo. If there is a large migration movement, for example of asylum seekers, specific checkpoints could be set up at the border.

The measures planned by the government in Helsinki on the border with Russia should be implemented “as soon as possible”. The cost of the project has not yet been estimated. Finland has applied for NATO membership. The government in Moscow then warned that this would have “far-reaching consequences”.