Finland says closes all but one border crossing to Russia | Oneindia News - video Dailymotion

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Finland's prime minister said Wednesday that the country will close all but its northernmost border crossing with Russia, following a surge in migrants which Helsinki claims Russia is intentionally pushing.    #Finland #Russia #immigration                 ~HT.178~GR.121~ED.102~

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00:00 Desperate humans. One of the hybrid warfare weapons Moscow frequently uses to try to intimidate

00:07 its neighbors. This time, the deployment of hundreds of inadequately dressed asylum seekers

00:12 in Finland has prompted the government to close border crossings with Russia.

00:18 Even though the numbers have not been so significant on their own, Finland wants to send a clear

00:24 message that this is not acceptable.

00:29 Officials say the latest arrivals admit getting Russian assistance.

00:34 Apparently, the route is that they fly or are flown to Moscow, where they get help,

00:42 probably for a fee.

00:45 This reverses longstanding cooperation in which Russian border officials would prevent

00:50 people without visas from going further. Now they're reportedly driving the groups of mostly

00:55 young men to the border area, giving them bicycles, although crossing by both bike and

01:00 foot are banned, and in some cases, even physically pushing people across the border if they show

01:06 reluctance. The Russian government calls such accusations groundless, and Finland's border

01:11 restrictions absurd.

01:14 We hope that common sense will prevail in Helsinki, and they will abandon destructive

01:19 ideas like the total closure of the border.

01:23 Helsinki has asked for backup of 60 officers from the European Union's Border Control

01:28 Agency Frontex.

01:29 To Russia we say, we will not let you divide us. To Finland we say, the European Union

01:36 is behind you.

01:37 Under international law, Finland must keep open at least one land route for asylum seekers

01:42 to lodge applications. When the government closed the four crossings in southern Finland,

01:48 it kept two more open to facilitate this process, but warned more countermeasures may be taken.

01:53 The situation could soon become more difficult, both practically and politically. Even if

01:59 the number of arrivals doesn't escalate dramatically, the temperature is dropping.

02:05 If Russia indeed starts to send people, let's say elderly people, sick people, people who

02:11 are in bad shape in these weather conditions, who could potentially even die, if that would

02:16 be the case, that's toxic politically on the Finnish side, and that's going to be a test

02:21 for resilience.

02:22 But opening the gates would also be dangerous.

02:25 That also sends the signal that at the end of the day we can be pressured to do what

02:30 Russia wants.

02:31 By the end of this interview, Henri von Honen was getting news alerts that asylum seekers

02:36 in poor physical condition were indeed turning up at the border. A dilemma for the Finnish

02:41 government made no less precarious just because it was predictable.

02:52 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Finland says closes all but one border crossing to Russia | Oneindia News

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