Russia has produced a new artificial conflict on the border with the EU. This time it is Finland that suffers from hybrid and cynical influence. What is happening on the Russian-Finnish border – read the material from Channel 24.
The borders of Finland and the EU are being attacked by illegal migrants from the Middle East. In response, the Finns first tried to resolve the issue through negotiations, but Russia traditionally sabotaged them and pretended that the problem did not exist.
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What’s happening on the Finnish-Russian border
Finland began to strengthen controls – closing individual checkpoints (now 8 out of 9 existing checkpoints are closed until February 18, 2024) and prohibiting border crossing by bicycle or scooter.
Note! Bicycles became a popular means of crossing the border in the fall of 2023 after Finland stopped allowing cars with Russian license plates through in September. This is the only EU policy; now Russians can legally enter Europe through Georgia, and then by ferry to Turkey, and then again by ferry to Greece, France and Italy.
Currently, two-wheelers have already become a symbol of the new migration crisis at the EU border.
Bicycle migrants storm Finland / Photo from social network X
Finally, on November 20, Helsinki announced a potential decision to completely close the border with Russia, not only for illegal immigrants, but for everyone in general. This has not yet happened, but the dynamics of events indicate that a decision is not far off. True, the country’s Ministry of Justice is against this option, which sees the closure of borders as a violation of the constitution, which gives migrants the right to asylum.
Finland is also actively strengthening its border with Russia and attracting the army to guard it.
We are preparing additional events. These decisions must be carefully prepared and proportionate,
– Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo promises a decisive response to illegal migrants on November 20, 2023.
Who is trying to enter Finland?
Official Helsinki states that we are talking about citizens of third countries who used Russia as a transit country. They are asking for asylum from Finland.
The diplomatic formulation “third countries” means citizens of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, etc.
Illegal immigrants in the snow at the border / Photo from social network X
So far, the number of illegal immigrants is in the hundreds, but Finland has decided not to wait for their numbers to increase, so it has introduced preventive measures.
Important! The influx of migrants is a long-standing fear in Europe and a factor in political struggle. Orban built more than one of his campaigns in Hungary on this. This card is actively used by right-wing populists in Germany (primarily the pro-Russian Alternative for Germany party) and other EU countries.
European populists (both right and left) are traditional supporters and allies of Russia, therefore the creation of a migration crisis is beneficial to Russians, because it mobilizes the electorate of radicals.
How migrants ended up in Russia
In Russia and its satellite Belarus, for many years there has been a scheme for the transit of illegal immigrants and their subsequent transportation (in fact, landing) to the EU. Usually to Germany. This is a big business and the cost of services from “black tour operators” starts from several thousand euros per person.
Note! Finnish journalists, together with their Russian colleagues, analyzed the chats of migrants and found that their arrival at the borders occurs centrally. The Russians have organized whole tours for them – first they take the illegal immigrants by car (with Russian license plates) to the border, then they give them bicycles (you have to pay for them separately) and wish you success when crossing the border.
You need to cover about 30 kilometers by bicycle, because the “carrier angels” don’t go all the way to the border.
Also in chats they write about a “full package of services”, including an official invitation from Russia, a ticket to Minsk or Moscow, and a transfer to St. Petersburg. Prices start from 2,000 – 3,000 euros. After the Finns began to notice the abnormal number of migrants, prices skyrocketed.
Who is guilty?
Russia. The Russians import people en masse from the countries of the Middle East, and then allow them to enter the EU without documents; in fact, this is a landing of illegal immigrants. Considering the scale of the import of illegal immigrants, as well as the specifics of business in Russia, it is difficult to doubt that the Russian authorities and security forces got by here.
There have been cases of illegal migrants being pushed out of Russian territory into the neutral zone, and then refused to be allowed back in. This is how the Finns were forced to let 20 Somalis through. It should be understood that at first they were allowed through the Russian checkpoint without documents. That is, we have direct evidence of either collusion or corruption.
For a time, Russian authorities allowed people through without proper documents. There are indications that this activity is organized,
– Prime Minister of Finland Petteri Orpo dots the i’s.
At the same time, Russians still widen their eyes and ask: what have we done? This is exactly how one can interpret the call of the Finnish Ambassador to Russia Antti Helanteri to the Foreign Ministry and the declared protest against the closure of checkpoints.
Diplomatic pressure is accompanied by an information attack – Russian propagandists have forgotten about Armenians, Ukrainians and Poles for some time and are now most looking for Russophobia and fascism among the Finns, relishing stories about the suffering of illegal immigrants and accusing the “collective West” of hypocrisy.
Some in Russia have already found Stalin’s training manuals from the Winter War. At the same time, the allusion to the Winter War is far from fiction. Finland, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, joined NATO under an accelerated procedure and, given the Russian military doctrine, is an enemy of Moscow.
The Leningrad Military District restored by Shoigu is developing plans for war with the Baltic countries and Finland, new units should be formed there. Thus, Finland needs not just to strengthen border points, but to think about restoring the Mannerheim Line.
Old and proven Russian tactics
If you have déjà vu from the story of the migration crisis on the border with Finland, then this is a normal reaction. After all, we have already seen something similar, however, on a much larger scale in September 2021 and the summer of 2023.
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Then the epicenter of the crisis became the border of Belarus with Poland and the Baltic countries. Then Lukashenko attacked the EU borders with tens of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Libya. Then experts directly said that migrants are a personal business and at the same time Lukashenko’s revenge on his neighbors.
However, there were assumptions that the Belarusian dictator himself could not organize a complex logistics operation to deliver tens of thousands of illegal immigrants to his country, and therefore they saw the “hand of Moscow.”
Russia’s apparent hybrid warfare tactics on the Russian-Finnish border are similar to the creation of a crisis by Russia and Belarus on the Polish border in 2021 and are likely also aimed at destabilizing NATO. The Kremlin enabled or may have directly controlled Belarus’ artificial creation of a migration crisis on the border with Poland in 2021, when Belarusian security forces helped thousands of migrants cross the Belarusian border into Poland. The Kremlin used the artificially created crisis of 2021 to falsely accuse NATO of aggression against Belarus,
– experts from the Institute for the Study of War on direct parallels between the events in Finland and the crisis of 2021.
Later, investigations confirmed this version, and new attempts to break through the border with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania in the summer of 2023 excluded all other options for interpreting the events.
What to expect next and how the EU is reacting
Trained by similar crises in 2021 and 2023, the Finns decided to act preventively until the number of illegal immigrants became critical. Early response ensured the success of countering the crisis.
Now Finland is doing everything as correctly as possible and responding to the Russian-inspired migration crisis in the spirit of the legendary monologue of Michael Shchur.
These are not our raccoons – watch the video:
In its actions, Helsinki has the full support of the EU, as the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, has already promptly stated.
We are grateful for Finland’s effective efforts to protect Europe’s external border. Russia’s attempts to instrumentalize vulnerable migrants will be met with backlash,
– Charles Michel expressed support for Finland and directly blamed Russia for the crisis.
Thus, it can already be stated that Russia’s attempts to destabilize the situation in the EU will backfire on Moscow itself: Finland’s support for Ukraine will only increase, and the actual closure of the borders will hurt Russia, first of all. We are talking about both economic problems and the large Russian diaspora in Finland. Everyone should thank only Putin for the problems created literally out of nothing.
2023-11-23 14:00:00
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