Finland detains man suspected of illegal entry from Russia

HELSINKI: Finland’s border guard said Thursday it had apprehended a man suspected of illegally crossing Finland’s eastern border from Russia, which has been closed for two years.
The man was detained in the southeastern border town of Imatra in the afternoon after a search operation involving border guard vehicles, dog patrols and a helicopter.
The border guard did not disclose the person’s nationality but said it had opened a preliminary investigation into a suspected state border crime.
During routine morning patrols on Thursday, the border guard had found traces left by a person in the snow-covered forest terrain north of the Immalanjarvi lake.
“These traces appeared to be quite fresh, which is why a search was launched,” Pinja Viskari from the Southeast Finland Border Guard told AFP.
Finland shut its 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) border with Russia in December 2023, as tensions mounted between the two countries over the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Nordic country is now building a 200-kilometer fence along its border with Russia, which is due to be completed in 2026, at an estimated cost of 380 million euros ($441 million).
There have been some individual border crossings between Russia and Finland this year.
“The most recent one in the southeast district occurred at the beginning of September, when a person crossed from Finland to Russia,” Viskari said.
On November 14, the Nordic country deported a Russian man who had crossed the border between the two countries in June and applied for asylum in Finland, with media reporting he was an ex-Wagner mercenary.