European curtain

The western border of Russia may finally close. Ukrainians will suffer the most

European neighbors of Russia close border crossings due to the sudden flow of migrants from Africa and the Middle East. Finland and Estonia are accused of the Kremlin’s migration crisis, but experts doubt that it is planned. The main injured as a result of new restrictions on the part of European countries will be ordinary Russians and Ukrainians. The latter are deprived of the opportunity, having left the territory of the aggressor, to come to Europe straight, and some - emergency medical care. In the case of closing the boundaries of opportunities, there will be practically no left to go to Europe directly left to Europe. "Cold" tells how and on whom new prohibitions will be hit.

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UPD 18:00 11/28/2023 - Finland authorities decided to temporarily close all borders.

The ban on entering the European Union with cars with Russian numbers with risks of car confiscation significantly undermined the possibility of leaving Russia to Europe. However, new restrictions on the part of Finland, Estonia, Norway and Latvia can finally close the European border for citizens leaving Russia. Of the 18 border crossings, only two can continue their work - with Latvia. European countries intend to close the rest of the checkpoint due to the accumulation of migrants on the borders. The most acute problem is felt on the Finnish-Russian border, which hundreds of thousands of Russians and foreign citizens held annually.

What happened?

On November 14, the Finnish border guards reported the situation unusual for their routine work: about 50 citizens of Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Somali turned to them from the Russian checkpoint from Russia. A day earlier, the asylum was requested , according to the border guard of Finland, 39 people.

Until mid-November, the number of asylum of the third countries crossing the Russian-Finnish border was much less. The Finnish media wrote that for the whole October 2023, 32 referers of the shelter drove through the southeastern border, and there were only 13 of them in September. Such a sharp increase in appeals alarmed both the border service and the Government of Finland: journalists began to come to the checkpoint, which people also got on bicycles, most of the snow, and most of them, for the most part, for the most part. Cases in small groups of four to five people.

Why did the migrants cross the border on bicycles?

The deputy commander of the border guard of Southeast Finland, Yucca Luccari, suggested that bicycles were used so that no one was charged with illegal migration. “If a person brings a passenger with incomplete documents in his own car to the checkpoint, then the driver can be suspected of organizing illegal entry,” Luccari explained .

Both Finnish and Russian media learned from the asylum suppliers that they found ads for the sale of bicycles specifically for crossing the border between Russia and Finland in social networks: vehicles were sold for $ 100-400.

On November 16, the Government of Finland decided to temporarily close four border crossings with Russia: Torfyanovka - Vaalimaa, Brusnicichnaya - Nuyyamaa, Svetogorsk - Imatra, Vyartsil - Niirala. Three of them are located in the Leningrad Region and one in Karelia, the border crossing on cars and buses is now banned from November 18, 2023 to February 18, 2024. These are the most popular and convenient transitions to Finland for people who travel from St. Petersburg: the road takes from three to six hours, while the remaining border crossings had to get two to three times longer.

On November 22, Finnish Prime Minister Peteri Orpo announced the closure of all the border crossings with Russia, except for one in the north of the Murmansk region. The distance to it from St. Petersburg is over 1400 kilometers. By that time, according to the calculations of the Finnish authorities, since the beginning of November, the refuge was requested by more than 500 people who arrived across the eastern border from Russia. In the Murmansk region, a regime of increased readiness was introduced due to a large accumulation of migrants.

On November 26, the head of the Estonian Border Service, Vaiko, said that Estonia could also decide in the near future to close the border with Russia. On November 27, the Government of Finland discussed the decision on the complete closure of the borders with Russia - from the beginning of August by November 27, about a thousand migrants had already appealed to the guest of the eastern border. The Prime Minister of Norway also stated the only checkpoint in the Murmansk region. On November 28, the Government of Finland reported that the last working border panel will also be closed for two weeks.

The authorities of Finland and Estonia considered that the sharply increased number of migrants coming from Russia and seeking shelters is nothing more than a provocation of the Kremlin. The decision of the Finnish government on the closure of seven out of eight border crossings says that Russia's actions "pose a threat to national security and the public order of the country." Finnish and Estonian officials believe that by sending a large group of migrants to the EU countries, Russia is trying to destabilize the situation within these countries. In addition, the speaker of the Finland Parliament suggested that Russian special forces and mercenaries from Wagner PMCs, dressed in civilian, can accompany migrants from third countries.

Nikolai Voroshilov, spokeswoman for civil assistance, which helps refugees and migrants in Russia, in a conversation with the “cold” suggested that the Finns associate the current situation on the border with what happened two years ago on the border of Belarus with Poland and Lithuania.

Migration crisis on the border of Belarus with Poland and Lithuania

In 2021, hundreds of migrants from the countries of the Middle East and Africa (Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen and others) began to cross the border of Belarus and Lithuania. However, it is customary to associate that crisis with the conscious actions of Alexander Lukashenko.

In 2021, the number of flights arriving from the countries of the Middle East increased sharply, and a significant part of the passengers on these flights was occupied by migrants. They planned to use Belarus as a transit point for travel to the countries of the European Union.

At first, dozens of people per day crossed the border, but their number grew. When hundreds tried to cross the border at first, and then thousands of people daily, the border guards of Poland and Lithuania stopped letting them down.

Migrants tried several times to storm the border. From the cold and hunger, several of them were killed then.

From the experience of working with refugees from different countries, “civil assistance” knows that it is almost impossible to obtain a refugee status in Russia.

“In the middle of 2023, only 248 people officially had this status. Not 248 thousand, but just 248 people, ”says Voroshilov. “In Russia, you can still get the status of temporary asylum, but with it we have only 36.5 thousand people in our country, of which 34 thousand are immigrants from Ukraine.”

According to Voroshilov, there are no refugees from Syria, Iraq, Iraq, Yemen and Somalia. “People come from countries where war is being waged, where, to put it mildly, it is unsafe. They apply for temporary asylum in Russia and first receive it, but after the expiration of the specified period, they cannot extend it. Russian migration services simply believe that they do not need a shelter anymore, as if in Syria or Somalia now safely and they can return there, says Voroshilov. - Without status, these people do not have the right to official work, the possibility of treating compulsory medical insurance, there is no way to send children to kindergartens and schools. They are in Russia with unresolved legal status and from despair, in the lack of money they are looking for some ways for themselves to survive. ”

Previously, Russian border guards checked the existence of a foundation for being in the countries of the Schengen zone leaving the country. But on October 20, 2023, Russia left the Treaty on Border Cooperation with Finland, after which the border guards stopped checking the foundations for the EU from Russia ( formally, the agreement should be completed on January 24, 2024 ). According to Voroshilov, this became a trigger for refugees-they had the opportunity to cross the border and request a shelter in the EU in the hope that they will be given some conditions for living there.

“People are coordinated among themselves, but this does not mean that any group of people is united by special services from the Kremlin,” says Voroshilov. - The coordination of actions in itself is not a proof of a conspiracy. People are coordinated for various occasions. And the intermediaries who take refugees to the border or sell bicycles there for frantic money, according to our data, their compatriots often become, only more entrepreneurial. ”

How can you leave Russia to Europe?

Soon after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, European countries stopped air and railway communication with Russia, entering the European Union on a tourist Schengen visa was closed, and in the fall of 2023 they also banned the entrance to Europe with Russian numbers.

After the Finnish decision on the closure of the border crossings, there were eight checkpoints left, through which Russians and foreign citizens can still cross the border.

The most reliable, there are still transitions from Russia to Latvia:

• Rotalinka (Pskov region) - Grebnevo ,
• Burachki (Pskov region) - Terekhovo , through both of these points you can enter the car or by bus around the clock.

Six more transitions between Russia and Estonia, Finland and Norway at the time of publication (November 28, 2023) work, but the heads of these countries have repeatedly declared the possible complete closure of borders.

Border crossings to Estonia:

• Ivangorod (Pskov region) - Narva , pedestrian, bus and automobile transition, works around the clock. But from February 1, 2024, this border crossing should be closed for reconstruction, and then it will remain to be possible to cross the checkpoint only on foot;
• Krupp (Pskov region)-Saats , a pedestrian-wound transition only for citizens of Russia and Estonia, works* from 09:00 to 18:00 Moscow time;
• Kunichina Gora (Pskov region) - Koydula, bus and automobile transition, works around the clock, is considered the most unloaded;
• Shumilkino (Pskov region) - Luhamaa, bus and automobile transition, works around the clock.

Border transition to Finland:

• Lotta (Murmansk Region)-Ryia Yooseppi, bus and automobile transition, works* from 11:00 to 15:00 Moscow time. UPD: The border crossing will be closed from November 30 to December 13, 2023.

Border transition to Norway:

• Borisoglebsk (Murmansk region) - Strukug, bus and automobile transition, works* from 10:00 to 17:00 Moscow time.

* The time for Russian checkpoints is indicated, the time of operation of the crossings of adjacent states may vary.

A loophole for Russians is a train that is traveling from Moscow to Kaliningrad. Citizens who have a residence permit or other documents giving the right to be in Lithuania can leave the train at one of the Lithuanian stations: Kyana or Kibartai (although such actions are not encouraged by employees of the Lithuanian border service).

What will happen next?

According to activists and volunteers from organizations helping different categories of people to leave Russia with whom the cold spoke, refugees from Ukraine, as well as Russian citizens who regularly went to Finland and back due to family ties, studies or work, will suffer from the closure of Finnish borders.

Anna Anisimova ( the name and surname changed at the request of the heroine ), which has been helping Ukrainians to travel through Russia to the European Union for almost two years, told the cold that the closing of the Finnish borders was a very big problem for them:

“Finland accepted those categories of refugees from Ukraine, which, for example, Estonia did not miss. In addition, Finland accepted people with a residence permit in Ukraine, but without citizenship or people with dual citizenship, as well as mixed families in which relatives have different citizenship. ”

But the biggest damage, according to Anisimova, will be inflicted on the closing of the Finnish borders, and seriously ill refugees from Ukraine. “Previously, it was possible to bring a lying or very affected person with amputated arms or legs of the Finnish border guards, and they themselves accepted such people, called an ambulance. Now this path has been covered, ”says Anisimova. -We always sent people with diagnoses to Finland, when I wanted people to have bureaucratic delays and long-month-olds to coordinate and design treatment. Everything was delivered there simply “with a bang”. But how it will be now - I do not understand. Of course, we will send Ukrainian refugees across the boundaries that continue to work, but this is more expensive, more difficult. And there is a chance that, for example, Estonia will not miss our refugees. ”

The Coordinator of the Project project, which helps to leave Russia to those people on whom an administrative or criminal case has been instituted, told the cold that there would be no directly closing the Finnish borders on the work of the project. “We are not so often using the border directly, because we do not like to meet with Russian border guards when it comes to criminal prosecution. We are looking for not quite ordinary options for the passage of the checkpoint, where it is not necessary to cross with Russian border guards, ”says the Coordinator of“ Rasting ”, who asked for complete anonymity. - But this, of course, will affect many activists and even on the mobilized, which hid from the call. Closing borders limits the possibility of quick departure for those who have visas. ”

Nikolai Voroshilov, a press secretary of “Civil Assistance” says that the decision of the Finnish authorities to close the borders has already led to the fact that about 200 refugees with unresolved legal status were detained and placed in the centers of temporary detention of foreign citizens. According to the press secretary of the head of Karelia Marina Kabatyuk, more than 150 migrants with expired Russian visas were detained by Russian law enforcement agencies from November 15 to 21.

“A significant part of them will be expelled from Russia to civil affairs countries,” says Voroshilov. - Let's hope that near the remaining checkpoints no one will freeze to death, as it was on the Belarusian border. Although this cannot be guaranteed. I would like this story to end with the fact that the Russian migration authorities realize that a large number of people in Russia needs help, they need to provide asylum, because they are in a difficult situation. But this is unlikely to happen, unfortunately. ”