ADDS BORDER CLOSING, REVISES HEADLINE
By Leila Nezirevic
LONDON (AA) – Finland closed the border with Russia Friday after it accused Moscow of resuming an effort to funnel migrants into the country to destabilize it.
The Helsinki decision came late Thursday, just hours after it announced the opening of the main Vaalimaa and Niirala crossings in the southeast of Finland to traffic, with plans to keep them open until Jan. 14.
Hundreds of asylum seekers have entered Finland from Russia since the country reopened the two crossings, the Finnish Border Guard said on Friday.
Last month, Finnish authorities accused Moscow of carrying out a suspected "hybrid attack" and purposefully assisting undocumented migrants in crossing into the Nordic country, which Russia denied.
“The phenomenon has started again and we will close the whole border,” Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said in an earlier statement.
“This is a sign that the Russian authorities are continuing their hybrid operation against Finland. This is something that Finland will not tolerate,” Rantanen said, reiterating the accusation against Moscow.
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) border with Russia, became the 31st member of the NATO military alliance last April ending decades of military non-alignment as a result of Russia's war in Ukraine that began on Feb. 24, 2022.
Earlier this week, Finland Prime Minister Petteri Orpo warned at a press conference that the government would close border crossings again if Russia used what he called "hybrid influencing tactics."
Following the two-week border closure, the Council of Europe published a letter on Monday expressing concerns "about the rights of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants" and urging Finland to ensure that asylum seekers and migrants could continue to seek protection.
The UN and many other human rights organizations have accused the Nordic country of violating international law and preventing people from seeking asylum.
Since the closure, Amnesty Finland warned that the decision to close all border crossings with Russia "undermines the rights of asylum seekers and increases the risk of serious human rights violations at the border."