Aljazeera: Finland moves to block asylum seekers from entering via Russia

The Nordic nation closed all border crossings with Finland last year after registering a surge in asylum seekers.

Migrants arrive to the international border crossing at Salla, northern Finland [File: Lehtikuva/Jussi Nukari/Reuters]

Published On 15 Mar 202415 Mar 2024

Finland plans to adopt temporary legislation that will allow its border authorities to block asylum seekers seeking to enter its territory from Russia, the government has said.

Finland closed all crossings on its 1,340km (830-mile) border with Russia late last year amid a growing number of arrivals who did not possess valid documents to enter the European Union.

However, asylum seekers have continued to arrive, and the government believes the numbers could rise significantly with the advent of spring and a rise in temperatures.

Helsinki accuses Moscow of funnelling migrants to the border, a claim the Kremlin has denied.

“Finland has been the target of instrumentalised migration … Russian authorities have not only failed to intervene in this phenomenon but have even facilitated it,” Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said on Friday.

Orpo said that the proposed legislation would now be sent out for comments and then sent to parliament for consideration, adding that the government hoped it would be approved as soon as possible.

The interior ministry said in a statement that “Finland must be prepared for the possibility that Russia will exert prolonged pressure”.

The Vaalimaa border checkpoint between Finland and Russia in Virolahti, Finland [File: Lehtikuva/Lauri Heino/Reuters]

The Finnish border authority has said more than 1,300 asylum seekers from nations including Yemen, Somalia and Syria entered from Russia between August and December last year.

Prior to this period, the number had averaged just one person a day.

In February, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said the authorities had information that thousands of people were on the Russian side waiting to travel to Finland.

Increased tensions

Last year, Finland abandoned its long-held position of military non-alignment and joined the NATO alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – a move that angered Moscow.

Finland’s Nordic neighbour, Sweden also joined NATO earlier this month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published on Wednesday that Finland and Sweden’s decision to join the alliance was “a meaningless step”.

Putin said that Russia would deploy troops and “systems of destruction” to the Finnish border in response.

Russia has threatened to take unspecified “political and military-technical counter-measures” in response to Sweden’s entry into NATO.

D/C: Very scary for Finland, need to keep on top of this!!

Navalny was close to being freed from prison before his death, says ally

Maria Pevchikh says Alexey Navalny was due to be freed in exchange for a Russian FSB assassin imprisoned in Germany.

Navalny, a 47-year-old widely seen as the most prominent opposition voice in Russia, died on February 16 in a maximum-security Arctic penal colony [File: Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo]

Published On 26 Feb 202426 Feb 2024

Russian opposition politician Alexey Navalny was close to being freed in a prisoner swap before his sudden death, according to his ally Maria Pevchikh.

In a video posted to YouTube on Monday, Pevchikh claimed the planned swap involved exchanging Navalny and two unnamed US nationals for Vadim Krasikov, a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) assassin in Germany.

Navalny, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died at 47 in an Artic penal colony, where he was serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges when he reportedly collapsed after a walk on the prison grounds.

“Alexey Navalny could be sitting in this seat right now, right today. That’s not a figure of speech, it could and should have happened,” said Pevchikh.

“Navalny should have been out in the next few days because we got a decision about his exchange. In early February, Putin was offered to exchange the killer, FSB officer Vadim Krasikov, who’s serving time for a murder in Berlin, for two American citizens and Alexey Navalny.”

A German spokesperson told a press conference on Monday that the government was aware of the reports of an alleged swap, but could not comment on them.

The Russian hitman Krasikov, who was part of the alleged deal, was jailed for life in Germany after being convicted of killing an exiled Chechen-Georgian dissident in Berlin’s Tiergarten Park in 2019 – an assassination that German authorities say was ordered by Russian intelligence services.

In an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson earlier in February, Putin signalled that he wanted to get Krasikov back.

While Pevchikh did not name who the US nationals were, Washington said previously that it was trying to return Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a former US Marine, back to the United States.

Pevchikh claimed that the potential deal was in its final stages on the evening of February 15. She said Navalny was killed a day later because Putin could not tolerate the thought of him being free.

World leaders, including in the US, have placed blame for Navalny’s death at the hands of Putin and issued sanctions in response.

However, the Kremlin has denied the allegation that Moscow had anything to do with his sudden death and slammed those making allegations without providing proof.

D/C; Sounds very plausible.