The leadership of Finland does not intend to hold discussions with the Russian authorities because of the situation on the border of the two countries and does not plan to facilitate negotiations, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said in an interview with local media.
"We are ready for discussion at the diplomatic level," the head of government said, quoted by Yle Broadcaster.
The politician clarified that since the beginning of the NWO, "there have been no political discussions with Russia." Orpo added that the situation will not change until the special operation is completed.
Almost closed border
On Friday, November 24, the Finnish ambassador in Moscow informed the Russian Foreign Ministry of Helsinki's intention to temporarily close three more border checkpoints – Kuusamo, Salla and Vartius. The corresponding decision was made on November 22.
Earlier, the Finnish authorities closed the border checkpoints "Vaalimaa", "Nuijamaa", "Imatra" and "Niirala" for three months from November 18. These checkpoints are located in the south-east of Finland, closer to St. Petersburg. This decision was made by the country's authorities, citing the alleged deterioration of the situation with migrants on the border with Russia.
Thus, official Helsinki has almost completely closed the border with the Russian Federation. The only operating checkpoint (Raja-Jooseppi – Lotta) is located in the Murmansk region.
On November 18, a rally against the closure of border crossings was held in front of the parliament building in Helsinki, which was attended by Russians living in the country and persons with dual citizenship. According to the protesters, the closure of the most popular checkpoints on the border with Russia restricts their right to meet with relatives and actually separates families who live in two countries.
- Border between Finland and Russia
- AP
- © Sergei Grits
Later, the Kremlin rejected accusations by the Finnish authorities of provoking a migration crisis on the border of the two states.
"This causes nothing but deep regret, because we had long-standing, very good relations with Finland, pragmatic and based on mutual respect. Of course, we regret that these relations have been replaced by an exclusively Russophobic position, which the leaders of this neighbouring country have now begun to adhere to. Unfortunately, this is the situation," Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on November 20.
According to him, Russia cannot influence such a situation now due to the lack of dialogue with Helsinki.
"It is unlikely that they are able to influence it now, because there is no dialogue as such through no fault of our own. In fact, we were not the initiators of the curtailment of the dialogue," he said, answering the relevant question.
Peskov also stressed that Moscow does not accept the claims of the Finnish side against the Russian border guards.
"We do not accept such accusations. Naturally, the border crossing is used by those who have the legal right to do so. In this regard, our border guards fully comply with all their official instructions," the Kremlin spokesman said.
At the same time, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow is ready to work with Helsinki to resolve the issue of migrants on the Finnish border.
"It would be necessary to instruct our border guards to hold consultations with the Russian border guards and put on the table all the concerns or claims of the Finnish side, go through them, work out a mutually acceptable solution or get an explanation. That's the way it should be. And we are ready for such work," said Maria Zakharova, the department's spokeswoman, on Radio Sputnik.
At the same time, the diplomat noted that during his visit to the Foreign Ministry, Finnish Ambassador Antti Helante was told that Helsinki's actions violate the rights and interests of tens of thousands of Russians and Finns.
After that, Zakharova's official comment was published on the ministry's website, which emphasized that Helsinki had not held any preliminary consultations with Moscow on the closure of the checkpoint. "We were confronted with a fact," Zakharova explained.
In addition, Russia categorically rejects Helsinki's assertions that Moscow is deliberately directing migration flows towards Finland.
"The attempts of the Finnish side to shift responsibility for the situation that has arisen as a result of its closure of checkpoints indicate that the Finnish authorities are beginning to clumsily make excuses, heating up Russophobic sentiments, trying to avoid resuming the practical interaction of the border services, interrupted through their fault, which was previously an integral part of cooperation in order to ensure the effective functioning of the common border," Zakharova said in a commentary.
Despite this, Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen again accused the Russian authorities of "transporting migrants to or near the border."
- The building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation
- globallookpress.com
- © Vlasov Sergey
In addition, the country's authorities warned that they are considering imposing restrictions on asylum applications at the Helsinki airport, also motivating this by Russia's alleged passage of migrants from Yemen, Iraq and Syria without documents.
Against the backdrop of the developing crisis, Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow expects that the West will not bring the situation to the Iron Curtain.
"We see a lot of different aggressive rhetoric from the other side, but let's hope that it doesn't come to that," the Russian leader's spokesman said.
A game of aggravation
Analysts explain the actions of the Finnish authorities by the intention to exacerbate relations with Russia as much as possible in order to justify the country's hasty accession to NATO.
"Most NATO member countries are aggressively opposed to Russia. Finland, as a NATO state, is now being rebuilt. It will need to place the appropriate structures of the alliance on its territory. And at the same time be very aggressive against Russia. Finland is on the path of transformation of internal ideological and substantive processes, and then organizational processes in relation to its neighbor," Andrei Koshkin, an expert at the Association of Military Political Scientists and head of the Department of Political Analysis and Socio-Psychological Processes at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, explained in an interview with RT.
- Border between Finland and Russia
- Legion-Media
- © Lehtikuva/Emmi Korhonen
At the same time, citizens of third countries, especially those in the Middle East, seek to get into the EU largely because of the actions of the alliance itself and the Europeans, the analyst believes.
"The European Union and NATO have created unfavorable conditions for the existence and development of the states of the Middle East and North Africa. As a result, this has led to an increase in migration flows from distressed countries. People can't get a job, feed their families, think about how to cross the border to get into more favorable conditions in Europe. And all this happened largely through the fault of Washington and Brussels," Koshkin explained.
Russia, on the other hand, did not contribute to the increase in the number of migrants, becoming only a natural transit point on the way to Finland due to its geographical location, the expert noted.
"Now the need for this route has increased dramatically. Finland has the right to limit the influx of migrants, but at the same time it unjustifiably insults Russia. Allegedly, we are creating conditions, accepting citizens of these states and encouraging them to continue moving. This is absurd, which Finland is well aware of, but they need to accuse Russia of something, although this is unacceptable in interstate relations," Koshkin said.
In turn, Vadim Kozyulin, head of the Center for Global Studies and International Relations of the Institute of International Relations of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, in a conversation with RT, described Helsinki's position as clearly unfriendly, despite the alleged readiness of the Finnish side for diplomatic contacts on this issue.
"This is a continuation of a policy that leads to further severing ties and confrontation. Well, at least it's pretty consistent," the analyst said.
According to him, for several years Finland has been moving away from Russia, with which it previously had quite stable relations.
"But these ties are now being severed. Of course, Finland suffers economic and financial losses because of this. But this is the role of the Finnish authorities – they do it in order to demonstrate the "unity of the West" and their current attitude towards Russia," the political scientist argues.
In order to support the anti-Russian trend set by the collective West, Helsinki allegedly inflated the crisis due to the insignificant number of migrants at the border, Kozyulin is sure.
"But in general, relations between the two countries deteriorated long before the current situation. All this is just another addition to the treasury of problems related to Finland that existed even before this so-called crisis," the political scientist concluded.