Finland has accused Russia of handing out bicycles and foot-scooters to migrants to help them cross the border as part of a plan to destabilise Europe.
Antti Häkkänen, the Finnish defence minister, also accused the Kremlin of dipping into its “playbook” on hybrid war by encouraging migrants to enter the country without the correct documents.
“Russia has directed unspecified interference at the border,” he said.
Helsinki has now ordered four of its eight road crossings with Russia to be closed and the European Commission has promised to send its border control unit to Finland.
Finnish officials said that the timing of the migrant surge from Russia was not a coincidence.
Finnish media reported that 300 migrants, mainly young men from Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Somalia, had crossed into Finland from Russia this week, up from near zero in a normal week.
Most of the migrant routes to Europe are via the Mediterranean Sea or Central Europe and not through more remote and inhospitable northern areas that border Russia. »
