The Finnish Parliament has amended its laws on Thursday to reinforce the fences on the border between Finland and Russia, at a time when the Nordic country has begun its process of accession to NATO.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in February, Finland ended decades of military nonalignment by asking to join the Atlantic Alliance in May, a process that officially began on Monday.
Fearing that Moscow will use migrants to put pressure on Finland, new amendments to the Finnish law on border guards will make it easier to build stronger barriers along the 1,300-kilometre border that Finland shares with Russia.
The objective of the law is “to improve the operational capacity of border guards to respond to hybrid threats,” Anne Ihanus, adviser to the Finnish Ministry of the Interior, told AFP.
“The war in Ukraine has contributed to the urgency of the issue,” he explained. Currently, there are light wooden fences on the borders of Finland, mainly installed to prevent cattle from grazing on the wrong side of the border.
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