Emerging from the snow on the Finnish-Russian border is a symbol of Moscow’s biggest challenge to NATO’s newest member: a giant pile of broken bicycles.
The battered bikes are sold for hundreds of dollars by the Russian side to asylum seekers from Syria and Somalia. They are then encouraged — sometimes forced, according to Finnish guards — to cross the border. The Finns say this is a campaign of hybrid warfare against their country, using some of the world’s most desperate people, just as a new position in a changing world order plays out.
“Some of the bikes didn’t even have pedals – sometimes they joined the arms, to help each other keep moving,” said Ville Kuusisto, a Finnish sergeant at the crossing near the Russian city of Vyborg.
As Finns vote on Sunday for a new president who will be in charge of foreign policy and act as commander-in-chief, Finland is fixated on its 830-mile border with Russia, the longest of any NATO country. How the Finns handle the challenges there is critical not only for them, but also for their new allies on both sides of the Atlantic.
The presidential election, now in its second and final round, is the first since Finland formally joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization last year after decades of non-alignment as it sought to bolster its own security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has warned Finland of “countermeasures” for its accession, which the Finns suspect they are now seeing in the form of infrastructure sabotage and cyber attacks. But it is the arrival of some 1,300 “human weapons,” as Finnish politicians have described them, in recent months that has generated the most public attention and concern.
European officials have repeatedly sounded the alarm about migrants being encouraged to cross their borders by Russia and its allies, with many worried the aim is to destabilize European governments and fuel discord in a bloc sharply divided over how to govern. of immigration.
In December, Finland closed all its crossings with Russia. Now, he is preparing a law, which Finnish media said could include provisions that would allow Finland to force people back across the border – a practice known as “refoulement”, which is illegal under European and international fair enough. Finnish officials have so far declined to comment on such measures.
Both presidential candidates heading into Sunday’s final round – Pekka Haavisto of the left-wing Greens and centre-conservative Alexander Stubb – have taken a hard line not only against Moscow, but also against asylum seekers.
“People see this Russian game very clearly,” Mr. Haavisto said in an interview. Asked how he felt about calls for possible reversals, he said humanitarian laws banning pushbacks may need to be changed to recognize what he described as a new form of hybrid warfare.
Mr. Stubb said border power was necessary because “the only thing Putin and Russia understand is power, usually brute power,” referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Whoever wins on Sunday will take the lead in shaping Finland’s new role in NATO. But the immigration issue is now likely to absorb much of their attention, which security experts say could be a distraction.
“This border problem is not the most urgent issue at the moment, but now it is an issue that will consume the bandwidth of the future president and the Finnish government,” said Matti Pesu, a security analyst at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
The crossings to Finland are the latest iteration of the deadly border policy that has played out since 2021, when Belarus, a de facto satrapy of Moscow, offered entry to thousands of migrants, allowing them to cross into Poland. Many ended up trapped between the two countries, beaten by border guards, who forced them back and forth across the border.
This is not the first time an influx has reached the country — there were spikes in 2015 and 2016, when more than a million people arrived in Europe, mostly fleeing the war in Syria and ending up in Germany. But since then, the border has been mostly quiet.
Finnish officials say that, contrary to a previous understanding between the two countries, Russia is now letting people without Finnish visas through its checkpoints.
Finnish border guards said that when they called their counterparts last year to complain, the Russians insisted they were just following procedures and could not deny people the right to cross.
Moayed Salami, 36, a Syrian who made the crossing in November, said his experience showed Russia was clearly using asylum seekers as pawns — but willing ones.
He and seven other applicants interviewed, who all arrived before Finland closed its borders, described being escorted through three layers of Russian checkpoints, where their passports were taken and visas to enter Russia were cancelled. He and some others said Russian authorities then followed them to the last stretch before the border.
“What I keep saying to the Finnish media, when they say that Russia is taking advantage of us, is that it doesn’t matter,” Mr Salami said. “How could he? We needed a way out. If we had to leave via Mars, we would.”
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, said the accusation that Russia was deliberately facilitating migrants was not only false, but “another example of the West’s double standards or lack of standards”.
Ahead of Sunday’s election, the crossings have forced a debate in Finland about the dangers of these arrivals for the NATO member.
Finland’s security and intelligence services have said publicly that Russia could be trying to recruit some migrants as spies, but have not shared evidence to support that hypothesis.
Others say the risk is that Finland undermines its self-image as a nation that shares liberal values and acts in accordance with international conventions on asylum.
“It is Russia that is trying to turn us against our own values,” said Iro Sarkaa, a fellow at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs. “We claim to be a liberal democracy, with a rules-based international order, and then we don’t respect those treaties ourselves?”
On Wednesday, Finland’s popular outgoing president Sauli Niniisto argued that humanitarian law was being used as a “Trojan horse” for those trying to cross.
Europe’s human rights commissioner, as well as Finland’s own human rights ombudsman, have warned that Finland risks breaching humanitarian protection if it does not also offer spaces for people to submit asylum claims.
“These players are probably looking at this issue from one side,” said Mari Rantanen, the interior minister. “But as a government, we have to look at the whole picture. We must also take care of our national security, because no one else will.”
Finland is using drones and plans to build several sections of 13-foot-tall fences along 125 miles of its southern border, with the goal of getting migrants to pass through specific points that can be monitored. With the help of Frontex, the European Union’s border agency, they have stepped up technical surveillance, including heat sensors and cameras.
For now, Finland’s lockdown has prevented most new arrivals. But Marko Sareks, the deputy head of the Finnish Border Guard division, said hundreds, if not thousands, of asylum seekers stuck in Russian border towns may still try to cross the forest, especially in the spring.
Already, more than 30 people have made life-threatening winter treks, including Rakan Esmail and Abdullah al-Ali, who hail from the Syrian city of Kobani.
Two weeks ago, they said, the smugglers drove them deep into the forest in freezing night temperatures and then robbed them at gunpoint of the last $6,000 they had borrowed for their trip.
“They just yelled at us, ‘Let’s go die!’ and left,” recalls 20-year-old Mr. Esmail.
They almost did. With only their pajamas under their pants and jackets for extra warmth, they trudged through banks of thigh-deep snow until they reached the Finnish side and knocked on the door of a small log cabin. Using Google Translate, they said, they begged its lone, elderly resident to call an ambulance and the Border Patrol.
Their brush with a frozen death scared them, but it wasn’t a deterrent.
Saying that asylum seekers like him were being described as human weapons, Mr Esmail was shocked. “We are not weapons,” he said, shaking his head. “We’re just human.”
Johanna Lemola contributed to the report from Helsinki and Nuijamaa and Emma Boubola from London.
