DISINFO: Finland shuts Russia border crossings as revenge for lost wars

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 in recent days, rather than because of some historic events in bilateral relations.

It is a known "hybrid warfare" tactic by the Kremlin to push irregular migrants over the Finnish border and later accuse 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 asylum seekers. 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 asylum seekers arrived at border crossing points in Lapland on bicycles provided by people or agencies with connection to Russian authorities.

In late 2021, Russia backed a similar campaign by Lukashenka's regime in Belarus to instrumentalise irregular migrants against especially Poland and the Baltic countries. During several months, irregular migrants from countries like Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan were given promises of asylum in the EU by Belarus state companies and security services and pushed to the border area. See our review of events here and here.

Further, the article erroneously claims that Russia granted Finland independence. In fact, Finland declared its independence from the Russian Empire on December 6, 1917, shortly after the Bolshevik Revolution which toppled the tsarist empire.

As for the claim about the Soviet Union’s alleged significant role in developing Finland's economy, it is an exaggeration because bilateral trade was mutually advantageous and earned Moscow a lot of much-needed hard-currency revenues. A brief history of Finland's foreign trade can be seen here.

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.