Finland ready to close last border point with Russia

Finland is ready to close its final border crossing point with Russia if Moscow continues to trepey “it is” immigrants.

That's what Prime Minister Petter Orpo, according to foreign media, has said.

“We have closed all our border stations on the east border, except one, and we are ready to close the last if necessary”, Orpo told reporters in Helsinki.

“Finland is protecting the European Union's external border and NATO border. We will not allow this phenomenon to continue”, he added.

Finland has seen an increase of asylum seekers entering visa-free along its 1,300-mile border (300 km) with Russia, with about 800 crossings since August.

And immigrants are mostly from the Middle East and Africa.

This has caused Finland to close the entire border crossing, except for the northernmost border, in the remote region of Murmansk in the Arctic, over the past two weeks.

Finnish officials claim Russia is trying to destabilise its Nordic neighbour, while Orpo called it “a systematic and organised action by Russian authorities” last week.

Unlike in April, Moscow warned that it would take “counter measures... in tactical and strategic terms” after naming Finland's decision to join NATO as a “attack on our security”.