Just two weeks after Finland joined NATO, the country began constructing a kilometer-long fence along its border with Russia. According to the authorities, the barrier will not be military: the fence must prevent Russia from letting migrants cross the border with Finland. Russians who want to flee are stopped by the border fence.

The Finns and the Russians share a border of more than 1,300 km, which mostly consists of wooden fencing or a dummy line in hard-to-reach forests. In places where this is possible, the first excavations have already begun. The Finnish authorities said that at the end of 2026, a three-meter-high fence should be erected along 200 kilometers of the border, using razor wire and surveillance cameras.

Finland follows the example of Poland and the Baltic states. Soon after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, those countries began building barriers on their borders with Russia or Russia’s ally Belarus.

In the winter of 2021-2022, Poland accused neighboring Belarus of sending hundreds of migrants across the border. Belarus has sent planes to the Middle East to collect refugees. Then they were forced to cross the border into the European Union. According to Brussels, it was a form of hybrid warfare to put more pressure on Europe, although President Lukashenko of Belarus has always denied this.

According to the Finns, last year thirty people were detained in the border area between Finland and Russia who crossed the border illegally. According to Helsinki, more than 800 people who were planning to do so were detained by Russian border guards. Perhaps among them were the Russians who wanted to flee their country.