Finland began on Friday (14) to build the first stretch of a fence on the border with Russia, less than two weeks after joining the NATO military alliance in response to the developments generated by the war in Ukraine.
Fearing retaliation from the east after joining NATO, the Finnish government decided last year to build the barrier, particularly in case Russia moves to flood the border with migrants.
Finland aims to guard against a repeat of events at the EU’s eastern border in Poland in the winter of 2021, when the bloc accused neighboring Belarus – a staunch Russian ally – of engineering a crisis by bringing in migrants from the Middle East, giving it seen them and pushing them over the border.
Made of steel mesh, the Finnish fence is slated to cover some 200km of the most critical parts of its border by the end of 2026. Project manager Ismo Kurki said on Friday that while it was not intended to prevent any attempted break-in, the fence will have surveillance equipment.
Meanwhile, so far there has been little human activity along the border between the two countries, which stretches 1,300 kilometers in all.
Last year, Finland detected just 30 illegal crossings, while Russian border guards stopped about 800 attempts, the Finnish border guard said.
Poland and the Baltic States have already started to erect fences on their borders with Russia and Belarus after the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.
Until now, the Finnish-Russian border has been a mere line in the vast forests that cover the area, marked only by a low wire fence designed to deter cattle and other domestic animals but not people.
The new fence will be 3 meters high, topped with barbed wire and accompanied by a road. The project is expected to cost around 380 million euros.
“Most (of the border area) is very remote and difficult to access. We chose areas that are accessible by vehicle and where large-scale illegal immigration is likely,” said Brigadier General of the Finnish Border Guard Jari Tolppanen.
Source: CNN Brasil
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