Finnish border guards on Friday presented a detailed plan for the construction of a barrier to tighten the security of its border with Russia, which has been under tension since the invasion of Ukraine.
Topped with barbed wire, this three meter high fence will be built on an area of 200 km along a highway, for a total cost of €380 million.
The especially sensitive areas will be equipped with night vision cameras, lighting and loudspeakers, the person in charge of the project within the border guard, Ismo Kurki, explained at a press conference.
More than 140 million euros
The construction, divided into three phases, will begin in March 2023 with the installation of a three-kilometre pilot barrier at the Imatra border crossing. Depending on the results of this phase, the second stage aims to build an additional 70 kilometers of barriers by the end of 2023 in the areas around the border crossings.
The Government has already added in its budget an additional allocation of 6 million euros for the pilot phase and 139 million for the second. The final phase will end in 2025 or 2026, according to Brigadier General Jari Tolppanen.
“This is one of the biggest projects ever undertaken by border guards,” he told reporters.
Fearing that Moscow will use migrants for political pressure, NATO candidate Finland amended its law on border guards in July to make it easier to build stronger barriers.
Although the Finnish-Russian border has “functioned well” in the past, the war in Ukraine has “fundamentally” changed the security situation.
“In this situation, we have every reason to reconsider our system,” Jari Tolppanen told AFP.
simple wooden fences
Currently, Finland’s borders are mainly protected by light wooden barriers, designed mainly to prevent livestock from moving. The new amendments make it possible to close border crossings and gather asylum seekers at specific points in the event of a large-scale entry attempt into Finland.
For Jari Tolppanen, this means that “in an extreme situation”, border guards “will be in charge of preventing entry into Finland”, a “new” task. According to him, border barriers are “indispensable” to stop large-scale illegal entries from Russian territory.
Estonia, Latvia and Poland have also increased or are planning to increase security on their borders with Russia.
In September, the Russians flocked to Finland after President Vladimir Putin’s announcement about mobilizing reservists to fight in Ukraine. Helsinki then considerably restricted the entry of Russian citizens into its territory.
Source: BFM TV
