Plunging through a snowdrift on the Finnish-Russian border lies a pile of broken bicycles, a symbol of Moscow’s biggest provocation yet against NATO’s new member state.
Battered motorcycles are sold for hundreds of dollars to asylum seekers from Syria and Somalia, far from the Russian side. They are then encouraged, and sometimes forced, according to Finnish guards, to cross the border. The Finns argue that this is a hybrid war operation against their country that takes advantage of the world’s most desperate people, precisely to secure a new position in a changing world order.
“Some of the bikes didn’t have pedals,” Finnish sergeant Wille Kuusisto said at an intersection near the Russian town of Vyborg. “Sometimes they linked arms and helped each other keep moving.”
Finland’s 830-mile border with Russia, the longest of any North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member state, is on hold as Finns vote Sunday to elect a new president who will be in charge of foreign policy and serve as commander-in-chief. It has become an obsession. How the Finns deal with the challenges there will be important not only for them but also for their new allies on both sides of the Atlantic.
The presidential election, now in its second and final round, aims to strengthen its security in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Finland officially joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization last year after decades of non-alignment. This is the first election since then.
Russia has warned Finland of “countermeasures” against its membership, which Finns suspect they are witnessing in the form of infrastructure destruction and cyberattacks. But what has caused the most public attention and anxiety in recent months is the arrival of some 1,300 “human weapons” as described by Finnish politicians.
European officials have repeatedly expressed alarm over the encouragement of migrants to cross borders by Russia and its allies, whose aim is to destabilize European governments and sharply divide them over how to handle migrants. Many fear it will cause discord within the bloc.
In December, Finland closed all its borders with Russia. The country is currently preparing legislation, which Finnish media say may include provisions allowing Finland to deport people across its borders, but this is subject to European law and international law. This is an act known as “pushback” which is illegal by law. Finnish authorities have so far declined to comment on these measures.
Both presidential candidates, who go to the final vote on Sunday, Pekka Haavisto of the left-wing Green Party and Alexander Stubb of the centrist conservative party, have taken tough stances not only on Moscow but also on asylum seekers.
“People are clearly seeing through this Russian game,” Haavist said in an interview. Asked how he felt about calls for a potential backlash, he said humanitarian law prohibiting backlash may need to be amended to recognize new forms of hybrid warfare, which he said Stated.
Referring to Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, Stubb said the use of force at the border was necessary because “all Putin and Russia understand is force, usually raw force.” .
Whoever wins on Sunday will take the lead in shaping Finland’s new role in NATO. But the transition issue is now likely to take away much of their attention, and security experts say it could be an intentional distraction.
“Although this border issue is not the most pressing issue at the moment, it is an issue that will consume the energy of future presidents and the Finnish government,” said Matti Pes, a security analyst at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. Ta.
The entry into Finland is the latest iteration of the dangerous border politics that have been going on since Belarus, Moscow’s bona fide satrap, offered entry to thousands of migrants and allowed them to enter Poland. Many people were beaten by border guards, trapped between the two countries, and forced to cross back and forth.
This is not the first time there has been an influx into the country, with another spike in 2015 and 2016, when more than 1 million people left for Europe, most of them fleeing the war in Syria and ending up in Germany. But since then, the border has been mostly quiet.
Finnish officials said Russia is now allowing people without Finnish visas to pass through its checkpoints, contrary to past agreements between the two countries.
Finland’s border guard said that when it called the border guard last year to lodge a complaint, the Russian side insisted it was only following procedures and could not deny people the right to cross the border. .
Moeed Salami, a 36-year-old Syrian who arrived at the border in November, said his experience shows Russia uses asylum seekers as obvious but willing pawns. Told.
He and seven other applicants were interviewed, and although all arrived before Finland’s borders closed, they were escorted through three tiers of Russian checkpoints, where their passports were confiscated and they were given visas to enter Russia. He also said that it had been cancelled. He and several others said Russian authorities then tracked them to the very edge of the border.
“When people say that Finnish media is being exploited by Russia, I always say that it doesn’t matter,” Salami said. “How could that be? We needed an exit. If we had to escape via Mars, that’s what we would do.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zacharova said that accusations that Russia is deliberately promoting immigration are not only false, but also “represent Western countries’ double standards, or the complete lack of standards. “This is a new example of this,” he said.
Ahead of Sunday’s elections, the latest border crossings have forced a debate within Finland about what risks these arrivals actually pose to NATO members.
Finnish security and intelligence agencies have publicly stated that Russia may try to recruit some migrants as spies, but have not shared evidence to support this theory.
Others say it risks damaging Finland’s image as a country that shares liberal values and acts in accordance with international conventions on asylum.
“Russia is trying to turn us against our own values,” said Ilo Salka, a researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. “We claim to be a liberal democracy with a rules-based international order, but do we ourselves not even respect those treaties?”
On Wednesday, Finland’s popular outgoing president Sauli Ninistö claimed humanitarian law was being used as a “Trojan horse” against people trying to cross.
The European Commissioner for Human Rights and the Finnish Human Rights Ombudsman have warned that Finland risks violating humanitarian protection if it does not provide people with a place to apply for asylum.
“These actors are probably looking at this issue from one side,” Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said. “But as a government, we have to look at the big picture. We also have to look after national security, because no one else does.”
Finland plans to use drones to build several 13-foot-tall fences along 125 miles of its southern border, with the aim of allowing migrants to pass through at specific points that can be monitored. With the help of Frontex, the European Union’s border authority, it has stepped up technological surveillance, including thermal sensors and cameras.
For now, Finland’s closure blocks most new arrivals. But Marko Sarek, deputy head of the Finnish Border Guard, said hundreds if not thousands of asylum seekers stranded in Russian border towns still trek through the forest, especially in the spring. He said he might try.
More than 30 people have already made the risky winter trek, including Rakan Esmail and Abdullah Al Ali from the Syrian town of Kobani.
Two weeks ago, they said, smugglers drove them deep into the forest during freezing night temperatures and at gunpoint took the last $6,000 they had borrowed for the trip.
“They just yelled at us, ‘Die!’ and drove off,” Esmail, 20, recalled.
They almost did. Wearing only pajamas under my pants and a jacket for extra warmth, I trudged through a bank of thigh-deep snow until I reached the Finnish side and knocked on the door of a small wooden hut. . They said they used Google Translate to plead with lonely elderly residents to call an ambulance and border police.
Their attacks with ice death scared them, but did not act as a deterrent.
Esmail was shocked to hear that asylum seekers like him were being described as human weapons. “We are not weapons,” he said, shaking his head. “We’re just people.”
Joanna Remora Contributed reports from Helsinki and Nuijamaa. Emma Bouvola From London.