photo"/>Temporary fence on the Finnish-Russian border. Photo: AFP/Scanpix
Finland has started building a 200-kilometer-long fence on the border with Russia, the border guard has announced.
Forest clearing and preparatory work began on Tuesday, so that road construction and fence installation can begin this month.
The pilot project – a three-kilometer fence near Imatra – is planned to be completed by the end of June, the Finnish border guard announced. The next 70 kilometers of the fence are planned to be built from 2023 to 2025.
In general, Finland plans to build a fence on the border with Russia for a length of 200 kilometers, allocating about 380 million euros.
Finland has the longest border with Russia in the European Union – 1340 kilometers. The fence is planned to be built in sections that, according to Finland, are exposed to the greatest risks of hybrid threats and illegal immigration.
The fence will be more than three meters high with barbed wire on top and will be equipped with night vision cameras, lights and loudspeakers at particularly risky sections of the border.
Currently, there are wooden fences on the Finnish-Russian border, which are mainly intended to stop livestock from entering the territory of the neighboring country.
Fearing that Moscow could use the migrants to put political pressure on Helsinki, NATO candidate Finland passed new amendments to its Border Guard Act in July to make it easier to install stronger fences.
Although the Finnish-Russian border previously functioned well, Brigadier General Jari Tolpanen told AFP in November that the war in Ukraine had fundamentally changed the security situation.
He stressed that the border fence is indispensable to stop large-scale illegal entry from Russian territory.
Finland saw an influx of Russians in September after Russian President Vladimir Putin announced mobilization.
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Source: LETA
