Following Finland's April 4th entry into NATO, the Scandinavian country has this week unveiled completion of its first section of a 200-km long border fence with Russia.
The nearly half-billion dollar fence is expected to be completed by 2026, and is topped with barbed wire and has a height of three meters (or nearly 10-feet tall).
"We started work on the site about a month ago. We have built a road and foundations," a representative of the construction company GRK told the AFP.
According to more from AFP: "About 70% of the fence will be erected on the southeast, with several smaller sections planned for central Finland and the largely uninhabited Arctic border in Lapland."
Finnish Brigadier General Jari Tolppanen told a press briefing over the fence that "Typical target areas will be border crossing points and their surrounding areas, roads leading across the border. Areas where human access is easy." He explained, "The necessity was triggered by a change in the security situation in Europe," and that "There is a need to reduce dependence on the effectiveness of Russian border control."
Previously some European and Finnish officials expressed fears that Moscow could use migrants to exert pressure on Finland, concerns that grew after President Putin's 'partial mobilization' order was issued in September.
Stretches of fence are planned for all major border crossings. Below is the plan as initially proposed, but which has since been reduced...
Russia previously warned its Arctic neighbor against militarizing the border in relation to the controversial NATO bid. The Kremlin further stated that NATO positioning military assets and weaponry there risked setting off a nuclear arms build-up in the Baltic region.
Following Finland’s April 4th entry into NATO, the Scandinavian country has this week unveiled completion of its first section of a 200-km long border fence with Russia.
The nearly half-billion dollar fence is expected to be completed by 2026, and is topped with barbed wire and has a height of three meters (or nearly 10-feet tall).
“We started work on the site about a month ago. We have built a road and foundations,” a representative of the construction company GRK told the AFP.
According to more from AFP: “About 70% of the fence will be erected on the southeast, with several smaller sections planned for central Finland and the largely uninhabited Arctic border in Lapland.”
Finnish Brigadier General Jari Tolppanen told a press briefing over the fence that “Typical target areas will be border crossing points and their surrounding areas, roads leading across the border. Areas where human access is easy.” He explained, “The necessity was triggered by a change in the security situation in Europe,” and that “There is a need to reduce dependence on the effectiveness of Russian border control.”
Previously some European and Finnish officials expressed fears that Moscow could use migrants to exert pressure on Finland, concerns that grew after President Putin’s ‘partial mobilization’ order was issued in September.
Stretches of fence are planned for all major border crossings. Below is the plan as initially proposed, but which has since been reduced…
Russia previously warned its Arctic neighbor against militarizing the border in relation to the controversial NATO bid. The Kremlin further stated that NATO positioning military assets and weaponry there risked setting off a nuclear arms build-up in the Baltic region.
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