The head of the European Union\u2019s executive branch said Friday that Finland\u2019s decision to close its border crossings with Russia over a surge in migrants was a security matter for the whole 27-member bloc to consider. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the remarks during a trip to the frontier, visiting a part of the border located in the Arctic. \u201cWe all know how (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and his allies instrumentalise migrants to test our defences and to try to destabilise us,\u201d von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow Putin is focusing on Finland, and this is no doubt in response to your firm support of Ukraine and your accession to NATO.\u201d On April 4, Finland decided to extend the closure of its border crossing points with Russia \u201cuntil further notice\u201d because of what the government says is a high risk of organised migration being orchestrated by Moscow. Finland\u2019s government has closed eight of its nine checkpoints with Russia. The only one that remains open is dedicated to rail travel only, and cargo trains mainly run through it.<\/p>\n
Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre (832-mile) land border with Russia, running mostly through thick forests in the south, and to the rugged landscape in the Arctic north. \u201cThis is not just about the security of Finland, but it is about the security of the European Union. We are in this together,\u201d von der Leyen said after visiting the border in Lappeenranta with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo. \u201cWe should be more Finnish when it comes to security.\u201d In a statement issued after the visit, Orpo said that \u201cthe spring\u2019s warmer weather increases the risk of Russia helping people illegally try to get to Finland via the land border \u2026 outside the border crossing points.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the migrants hail from the Middle East and Africa. The vast majority of them have sought asylum in Finland, a member of the EU and NATO with a population of 5.6 million. Finland joined NATO in April 2023, ending decades of neutrality after the country\u2019s defeat by the Soviet Union in World War II. In March, Sweden also became a member of the trans-Atlantic alliance. The move dealt a major blow to Putin, with a historic realignment of Europe\u2019s post-Cold War security landscape triggered by Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The head of the European Union\u2019s executive branch said Friday that Finland\u2019s decision to close its border crossings with Russia\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":40340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[13224,726,8337,3194,609,976,13225,265,1490,499],"class_list":["post-40339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-destabilization","tag-eu","tag-european-commission-president-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-finland","tag-migrants","tag-nato","tag-orchestrated-effort","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-security","tag-vladimir-putin"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}