Estonia, following Finland, showed Russia the “teeth of the dragon”: “It’s impossible to get there”

On the night of November 17-18, the four most popular checkpoints between Finland and Russia were closed, as stated – temporarily, until February 2024. The formal reason is the alleged influx of African and Middle Eastern refugees rushing through the Russian Federation to Europe.

The remaining checkpoints between the border of Finland and Russia are bursting at the seams due to congestion.

On Sunday morning, November 19, it was announced that the fifth checkpoint, Vartius, which is located in Karelia, 900 km from the nearest closed checkpoint in Niirala, was also ceasing its work – the border guards could not cope.

Finnish media claim that Vartius will open soon. The border services have not yet given any comments on this matter.

After the closure of almost all land crossings between Russia and Finland, the possibility of the same actions was reported in Norway and Estonia. There was no such cooling of relations even during the Cold War. The ones who will suffer the most in Finland are mixed families with Russian wives, former repatriates – Ingrians and Karelians who went there under the return program, and now will actually not be able to see their loved ones.

“The problem is not that entry is prohibited, but that it is impossible to get there – even now from St. Petersburg in a few hours you could already get to Helsinki, there were minibuses, you could also cross in a car with Finnish license plates – women who got married here , calmly went to visit their parents who remained in Russia, now this is impossible, ties will be severed,” says Olga, who has lived in Finland since the mid-2000s.

She says that we are not even talking about hundreds – about thousands of victims. “Only I know more than ten Russian wives, some of them have experience in family life – from the Soviet Union, their marriages are more than 30 years old,” says Olga. Her mother also stayed in St. Petersburg. First, the pandemic began with the closure of borders, and then this confusion and tension, Olga says that she will think about what to do. “For now, there is an option to fly to her through Istanbul or Yerevan with transfers in Europe. This is a lot of money and 2-3 days of travel. She won’t be able to come to me at all – age, illness,” the woman worries.

All this is reminiscent of the film “Intergirl” and the homesick former currency prostitute Tanka Zaitseva, who married a Scandinavian husband – albeit from Sweden. For her, too, parting with her mother meant “forever.” Who would have known that this nonsense would ever return…

“I don’t even know if they’ll be allowed to take her. Will she want to move? In the summer I traveled by car and minibus from Helsinki with Finnish license plates. There are many of them here. And if there has been a ban on Russian license plates for a long time, then they let us through. Now that’s it, it’s over, I won’t risk going through the checkpoints that remain somewhere in Karelia,” the woman cannot come to her senses.

The Finnish authorities claim that this has nothing to do with the Russians and that in general they are fighting African refugees and migrants from the Middle East in such an interesting way, who have literally occupied checkpoints on bicycles in recent weeks. The amazing thing is that this is not a joke. There are also photographs of black cyclists at night. How they got into Russia itself before this, and why the Russian authorities do not limit their number in any way, because they also somehow get into Russia, is, of course, an interesting question. There is no answer to it.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo claims that Russian border guards are helping to create a crisis situation by allowing people to enter the border without the necessary documents.

A similar influx of Africans happened in Belarus several years ago. Then, on the border with Poland, several thousand migrants from third world countries accumulated, who went on an assault, knocked down pillars and barriers in order to illegally break into Europe, and the Poles even had to rally troops to stop this madness.

Be that as it may, the repetition of the same situation in the Russian Federation led to the closure of the most popular crossings with Finns.

Lately, getting into and out of Finland with a Russian foreigner has been almost impossible. Even with a multi-year Schengen visa. “They interrogated me at the border, they shook up all my things,” says Roman, also a resident of the city on the Neva. – We flew from Europe, where we were vacationing, to Helsinki. We live in St. Petersburg, so it was the easiest and fastest way to do this, especially since no one checked documents at the arrival airport, since this is the EU. We have a five-year visa, we were sure that there would be no problems. But on the border with Russia, the Finns gave us a real search, inspected all our things, interrogated how we got to them in the first place. Yes, in the end they let us through, but it took a lot of nerves.”

Tourists say that transit through Finland has been extremely difficult this year. It was necessary to show tickets to a third country, and then – everything was at the discretion of specific border guards, and they could turn it around.

Therefore, many from St. Petersburg got to Murmansk and from there straight to Norway, where Russians were allowed into Europe much more loyally. The only problems were with the use of bank cards; in Norway, cash is almost not used even in ordinary stores, and Russian payment systems have not been working for a long time.

“But we still managed somehow. Some had cards from European banks; in general, there were payment options,” the travelers say.

But immediately after the checkpoint with Finland closed, Norway, followed by Estonia, announced that they were considering the same categorical options for action.

“Norway is monitoring the situation on the border between Russia and Finland and, if necessary, is ready to follow the example of the Finnish authorities, who have limited the operation of checkpoints.” The country’s Minister of Justice and Public Security, Emily Enger Mehl, announced this in an interview with NTB. Estonia is also considering the possibility of closing several checkpoints on the border with Russia, Veiko Kommusaar, head of the country’s border service, told Postimees.

“We are monitoring the situation closely and it may be appropriate for us to close the border at short notice if necessary.”

The crossing point in Estonia is between the Russian Ivangorod and the Estonian Narva. Many Russians still have real estate in Estonia and even dachas where they went on weekends. “They abandoned their St. Petersburg cars, crossed the border on foot, and got into cars with Estonian license plates. It was much more difficult to pay property taxes due to difficulties with transfers, and many people had accumulated debts. But it was possible to cross the border,” local residents share.

Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets said there was no data yet on how many refugees might have crossed from the closed Finnish to Estonian border, but added that Estonia had prepared for any eventuality: “We carry out preliminary checks so that no one gets to the border without reason.” border point.”

On Thursday, immediately after Finland’s position on closing the checkpoint was announced, one could see that concrete barriers, the so-called “dragon’s teeth”, appeared on the bridge between Estonia and Russia, preventing anyone from breaking through to the crossing.

“If a situation arises in which people start getting stuck between two border points, we will have to close the border point in Narva. The most difficult thing will be if border crossings begin to take place outside the border points, but we are ready for this too.”

Estonians say they have prepared concrete blocks in case the government decides to restrict entry into the country from the Russian Federation in order to curb the wave of illegal migrants. In any case, on February 1, 2024, the Ivangorod border checkpoint will be closed for… repairs. Of course, the timing is perfect! “And these concrete blocks will restrict the movement of vehicles on the bridge during the closure period.”

The last “gaps” through which our country could directly enter the EU are closing, as in a “domino effect”: one after another, in a chain.

In fact, the window to Europe, which Peter the Great cut through, is being tightly clogged. Who is to blame for this? Certainly not ordinary people, they are the ones who will suffer the most. Mostly Russians, but also Europeans, especially those with relatives in the Russian Federation. And politicians who make such inhumane decisions absolutely don’t care – if anything happens, they will always find a way to get where they want, without problems.