The common border with Russia has been closed for a year by decision of Helsinki, which denounces attempts to “destabilize” Moscow. Supposed to be temporary, this closure is prolonged and is not without consequences on the country’s economy.
The immense expanse of pine and birch trees is deserted, near the border post of Imatra, a town in southeastern Finland. For a year, almost no one has crossed this crossing point on the Russian-Finnish border with a total length of 1,340 kilometers – the equivalent of three times the Franco-German border. Helsinki has decided to close Europe’s most important common land border with Russia, in the name of “national security” in November 2023.
Moscow was then accused of “instrumentalizing” migrants from Asia and the Middle East. Some 1,300 Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis, who deny being manipulated by Moscow, arrived illegally in the fall of 2023. A hostile response to Finland’s entry into NATO in 2023: Russia would have knowingly transported them to this border, or even recruited some of them as “informants”, according to the Finnish intelligence services (Supo).
Belgium
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