Putin's New Plan to Destabilize NATO

Russia is stoking a migrant crisis on its border with Finland to destabilize NATO's newest member, a Finnish foreign ministry official has told Newsweek, as Helsinki announced it would close all but one of its borders with its Nordic neighbor.

"Russia wishes to cause harm or try to cause harm and confusion to Finland, that is clear," Mikko Kinnunen, ambassador, strategic communication, at Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs said in a phone interview.

Finnish authorities announced last week they would close four out of eight road border crossings with Russia following a spike in asylum seekers trying to enter the country in what Helsinki has said is a deliberate ploy to push migrants to its frontier, a claim denied by Moscow.

Fellow NATO member Norway, which shares a border with Russia in the Arctic, has said it would close its border at short notice if necessary. Another alliance member bordering Russia, Estonia, also accused Moscow of sending asylum seekers without visas or residence permits to its frontier.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that starting Friday, only its northernmost border crossing with Russia, Raja-Jooseppi, would remain open, having previously claimed that Russian border guards are escorting migrants to the Finnish frontier.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington D.C. think tank, said on Monday that this "apparent hybrid warfare tactic" on the border is akin to what Russia and Belarus did on the Polish border in 2021 and is "likely similarly aimed at destabilizing NATO."

Belarusian security personnel aided thousands of Middle Eastern migrants in crossing the Belarusian border to Poland in a ploy that allowed the Kremlin to falsely accuse NATO of aggression against Belarus, the ISW said.

After decades of non-alignment, Finland became NATO's 31st member in April, spurred to join the alliance by the threat posed by Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia, which shares an 830-mile border with Finland, was angered by the move, particularly as one of President Vladimir Putin's justifications for starting the war was because of the alliance's expansion towards Russian borders.

Kinnunen said that Moscow was repeating a tactic it had deployed in 2015 and 2016, before NATO accession, in which it was "instrumentalizing people from Middle East, Asia, Africa," by sending migrants to its border.

Back then, Finland was not part of NATO and there was some confusion within the country as to whether it was a deliberate activity by Moscow to disturb its borders.

"If there was confusion in 2015 and 2016, obviously there is no confusion anymore. Now everybody clearly understands this is a malicious influencing operation by Russia," Kinnunen said.

"Russia might be willing to take actions under the threshold of warfare or under NATO's Article 5 in different parts of Europe, with the aim of splitting Western societies and causing problems which might make us reconsider our support to Ukraine." Under Article 5, an attack on one NATO member is an attack on all and would be followed by a collective response.

Finland's ombudsman for non-discrimination said that Helsinki would still abide by international treaties and EU law in allowing asylum seekers to seek protection.

Kinnunen said that due to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, "Russia is at war with the very core of international law" as enshrined in the U.N. Charter and that Russia is "taking advantage of our obligations towards those seeking asylum."

On Wednesday, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Moscow was ready to work with Helsinki to reach an agreement on the border issue. Newsweek has contacted the Russian foreign ministry for comment.

Last week, video went viral of a confrontation between border guards and migrants at the Niirala border station and since then Finnish border guards and soldiers have begun erecting barriers, including concrete obstacles topped with barbed wire, at some crossing points.

Polish Border Blockade

It comes as another border crisis involving a NATO member state is deepening, after truck drivers from Poland said they would extend a blockade of the country's border with Ukraine until February.

The dispute stems from Polish truckers' complaints that Ukrainian imports have reduced the competitiveness of their transported goods, which is rejected by officials in Kyiv.

Poland's Committee for the Defense of Carriers and Transport Employers (KOPIPT) demand Ukrainian drivers entering Poland be limited by the reinstatement of EU permits, which had been suspended after Russia blocked Ukraine's Black Sea ports.

The Kyiv Independent reported that key players in the truckers' protests were Poland's Confederation Liberty and Independence Party which have expressed views opposing Ukraine and siding with Russia.