Finnish border guards advise building a fence at the border with Russian Federation

The Border Service of Finland recommends its government build a fence at some sections of the border with Russia.

The Finnish Yle reports about this. Such a proposal was made “due to a change in the security situation.”

The proposal is to build a fence at specific sections of the border. The maximum length of the fence would be 260 kilometers, and the total length of the land border between the countries is 1,300 km. The cost of the project is estimated at several hundred million euros.

The Finnish government has not yet considered the proposal, however, Krista Mikkonen, Interior Minister, spoke favorably of it.

“Barriers at checkpoints and at the most important sections could be useful… Noone thinks that the entire 1,300-kilometer border will be fenced off. There are areas where the risk is higher — these are the areas where there are settlements on both sides of the border, through which roads pass,” she noted.

She also emphasized that border surveillance has already been strengthened, and any attempts at illegal crossing will be noticed.

In general, there are not many of those cases so far, as per the Border Service. However, after the introduction of new restrictions on the entry of citizens of the Russian Federation and the announced mobilization, the situation might be changing.

It is reported that on September 26, the flow of Russians entering Finland had slightly decreased – more than 7,700 people entered the country, and almost half of them crossed the border in the opposite direction that same day.

In total, approximately 17,000 Russians entered Finland on Saturday and Sunday, which is 80% more than the previous weekend. A significant part of those entering left for other countries via transit.

As previously reported, Latvia might be declaring an emergency in the regions bordering Russia.