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Finland to Close Russian Border Again in Sudden Reversal
(Bloomberg) -- Finland’s government will again close all road checkpoints on the Russian border, having opened two of eight such crossings earlier in the day, in response to a resumed flow of asylum seekers.
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Interior Minister Mari Rantanen explained the sudden reversal to lawmakers in parliament Thursday, saying that organized asylum seeker arrivals “ended when the border was fully closed and thus there was no reason to keep it closed in its entirety. Now the phenomenon has resumed and we will close the border in full.”
Finland views the phenomenon as a threat to its national security masterminded by Moscow, saying asylum seekers are being helped by Russian authorities to checkpoints without all the required travel documents to pressure the Nordic country that is the newest member of the NATO defense alliance.
The Vaalimaa and Niirala checkpoints on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s longest frontier with Russia opened Thursday morning following two weeks of a complete shutdown of the eastern border stations. They’ll close again at 8 p.m. local time on Friday. All eight road checkpoints will then remain shut until Jan. 14.
Speaking to reporters in Helsinki, Rantanen said the government “had hoped to get the situation under control when the border was fully closed.”
“Now that the phenomenon continued exactly in the same way, with assistance from authorities bringing third-country citizens to our borders, it’s clear that two weeks wasn’t enough,” she said. “We’ll now try four weeks. We don’t want to close the border for the sake of closing the border, but if we have to do it for Finland’s national security, we will do so.”
Finland also announced on Thursday that it would sign a defense cooperation agreement with the US on Monday, in which the US commits to safeguarding its ally should there be an attack.
Read More: US Commits to Defending Finland in New Military Agreement
--With assistance from Alex Tribou.
(Updates with government decision, minister’s comments from fourth paragraph.)
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