DISINFO: Finland closes borders with Russia - rallies started in Helsinki
SUMMARY
The Finnish Cabinet of Ministers is ready to consider the complete closure of the border with Russia. The official reason were claims made against the Russian Federation about the uncontrolled passage of migrants, but the Russian side rejects all accusations.
At the same time, rallies begin in Helsinki - not only Russians, but Finns suffered. The Finnish government admitted that the closure of border crossings creates difficulties for Finns themselves, but emphasised that it will not retreat from its principles.
RESPONSE
Disinformation narrative about recent events on the border between Finland and Russia.
On 16th November 2023, Finland closed several of its border crossings with Russia due to a sharp increase of the number of asylum seekers arriving at its southeast border. Later, Finland closed three more border crossings at night for a month, leaving open only its northernmost one, Raja-Jooseppi, located in the Arctic region.
“Russia must stop sending asylum seekers across its frontier into Finland in what amounts to a "hybrid attack", Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Friday, November 24. In his interview to the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on November 25 he stated that Finland does not intend to negotiate with Russia at the state leadership level regarding the situation on the eastern border.
This is known as a "hybrid warfare" tactic , with the Kremlin pushing irregular migrants over the Finnish border and later accusing the European Union and EU Member States of violating human rights in connection with handling of migrants.
Some of migrants in the recent events behaved aggressively by attempting to cross the border on bicycles and skirmishing with guards. "In recent months, the actions of the Russian authorities, at least on the border with south-eastern Finland, have changed in such a way that, unlike before, they have allowed travel despite lack of documents," the Border Guard said.
Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen said the closure of border checkpoints was "a crystal-clear message to Russia" and potential irregular migrant. Häkkänen added: "We have evidence of how Russia operates in Europe and other parts of the world. For instance, in the Mediterranean refugee crisis, there are signs that Wagner is operating in the background on Russia’s orders to accelerate the migrant crisis in Europe and destabilise its unity. In the Baltic countries, [it has] continued an instrumentalised migration crisis in order to destabilise the Baltic countries and Poland."
Russia also orchestrated similar events on the border to Finland in 2015 and 2016, when many irregular migrants arrived as asylum seekers at the border crossing points in Lapland on bicycles provided by people or agencies with connection to Russian authorities.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Polish border guards shot about 20 migrants per day on Belarus border, that Poland artificially escalates the situation on the Belarusian border, and that Migration crisis on the Polish border is a result of American actions in the Middle East.
See similar cases on Finland such as Finland organised the migration crisis as a pretext for closing borders after joining NATO. and Finland’s sealing of Russia border is illegal and ordered by the US.