NATO member Finland breaks ground on Russia border fence

Authored by abc.net.au and submitted by brezhnervous
image for NATO member Finland breaks ground on Russia border fence

The construction of barbed-wired fence along Finland's long border with Russia has started, less than two weeks after the Nordic country joined NATO as the 31st member of the military alliance.

Key points: The main purpose of the three-meter high fence is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia

The main purpose of the three-meter high fence is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia Border officials say Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted construction of the border fence

Border officials say Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted construction of the border fence The fence will eventually run for about 200 km

The Finnish Border Guard on Friday (local time) showcased the building of the initial 3-kilometre stretch of the fence to be erected in the country's south-east, near a crossing point off Imatra — a quiet lakeside town of about 25,000 people.

Finland's 1,340 kilometre border with Russia is the longest of any European Union member.

Construction of the border fence is an initiative by the border guard that was approved by Prime Minister Sanna Marin's government amid wide political support last year.

The main purpose of the three-meter-high steel fence with a barbed-wire extension on top is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia and give reaction time to authorities, Finnish border officials said.

The existing border is marked by this lower fence, which is designed to stop cattle straying. ( )

In 2015 and 2016, Moscow attempted to influence Finland by organising large numbers of asylum-seekers to mass at northern Finnish crossing points in the Arctic Lapland region.

Russian authorities were seen deliberately ushering thousands of asylum-seekers — mostly from Iraq, Afghanistan and other Middle East nations — to those border crossing points.

The move was seen as a show of muscle by Moscow.

The issue was settled when Finnish President Sauli Niinistö held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The flow of migrants stopped shortly thereafter.

This is a scenario that Finland — a nation 5.5 million people that officially became a NATO member on April 4 — wants to prevent from repeating itself.

Border officials are quick to acknowledge, however, that it was Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year — the main reason for Finland's quick push to join NATO after decades of military non-alignment — that prompted construction of the border fence.

"Border barrier fence was no kind of political topic before the war [in Ukraine]. And actually, it wasn't a … plan of the Finnish border guard," Brigadier General Jari Tolppanen, head of the technical division at the Finnish Border Guard, told The Associated Press.

"All changed after the attack [of Russia against Ukraine]."

Locals happy fence is being built

The pilot section of the fence is scheduled to be completed by this summer, while the barrier will eventually be extended to a maximum of 200km.

It will cover areas — in bits and pieces of separate length — mainly in south-eastern Finland near the main border crossing points with Russia but it will also have sections up in the Arctic north in Lapland.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto signed Finland's national NATO legislation last month. ( )

"In this new situation, we must have much more credible and much more independent border control," Brigadier General Tolppanen said.

"We need to strengthen our resources. And the fence is necessary in order to manage, for example, large-scale illegal immigration."

Imatra is located 7km from the Russian industrial town of Svetogorsk in the Karelia region and is a few hours' drive away from Russia's second city of St Petersburg.

The town has a long history in dealing with Russians — tourists, day-trippers and permanent residents alike.

"Here in Imatra, we're not so afraid about Russians because the border has always been there and it has never been open between European countries," said Antero Lattu, vice chairman of Imatra City Council.

He stressed that locals aren't afraid of Russians "but we're happy because of that fence"

Erkki Jouhki, who works as a town planner, agreed but also stressed Finland's military capabilities.

NATO membership gives Finland "a strong back but we have a very strong army. it's very well [armed] … it's a very modern army here because of Russia".

The border fence project is estimated to cost a total of 380 million euros ($622 million) and is scheduled to be completed by 2026.

Finland's long eastern frontier runs mainly through thick forests.

In some places, the Finnish-Russian border is marked only by wooden posts with low fences meant to stop stray cattle.

failure_of_a_cow on April 16th, 2023 at 14:36 UTC »

Just to address some of the wild bullshit in this thread: this is not intended to be a single wall extending over the entire 1,340 km border. This is going to be a number of walls covering specific areas and totaling no more than 200 km.

The purpose of these walls is to prevent a repeat of a tactic that Russia used in 2015 and 2016, where they organized a large number of civilians at Finland's border in certain places. Russia was using these civilians to threaten Finland in a non-militaristic way. This is not something that Finland's NATO membership can protect them against.

Nothing about this is really very similar to Trump's Ignominy.

-Purple_Light_Saber- on April 16th, 2023 at 08:59 UTC »

Please do note that NATO is not particularly relevant here, as the border fence has no military function:

The main purpose of the three-meter-high steel fence with a barbed-wire extension on top is to prevent illegal immigration from Russia and give reaction time to authorities

The fence is being built in case of a situation similar to the Belarus-Poland border crisis.

macross1984 on April 16th, 2023 at 06:30 UTC »

Even though Finland lost during the last war with Soviet Union (Russia) it still managed to give the invader quite a bloody nose.

Now that Finland is NATO member, Russia can worry all they want but so long as they behave and not attack they have nothing to worry.