17 ноября 2023 — 14:00
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced the country's intention to close four checkpoints on the border with Russia.
We are talking about the following points - "Vaalimaa" (from the Russian side, this is a multilateral automobile checkpoint "Torfyanovka"), "Nuiyamaa" ("Lingonberry"), "Imatra" ("Svetogorsk") and Niirala ("Vyartsilya").
All these checkpoints will close on the night of Saturday, November 18. It will be impossible to cross the border on them at least until February 18, 2024, the government of the country clarifies. And they explain their decision by the growing number of migrants from third countries. According to the Finnish border service, migrants mainly come to the country from the Middle East and Africa — from Iraq, Yemen and Somalia.
In Moscow, Finland's decision was called destructive and they believe that in this way the local government decided to "deliberately distance itself from good relations with Russia."