Finland’s government will close its one remaining crossing point with Russia if its neighbor continues with a hybrid operation to push asylum seekers across the demarcation, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said.
“If Russian authorities continue to transport” migrants “to or near the border, then the situation is that we will seal our entire eastern border,” Rantanen said on YLE TV1 on Thursday. “This has nothing to do with immigration policy, this is purely a question of national security.”
The Nordic country has already taken decisions to close seven stations, leaving open only the northernmost remote border point, Raja-Jooseppi in Lapland. It’s responding to an operation in which it says Russia is providing transport to asylum seekers who seek to enter Finland in order to put pressure on the newest member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
Read More: Finland Seals Bulk of Russian Border With One Station Left Open
