Now that Helsinki has decided to join NATO, the 1300-kilometre Russian-Finnish border will become one of the flashpoints of the new Cold War. It is impossible to secure everything, but in November the government presented a plan to secure the border with a fence of about 200 kilometres. Now it is starting, with the removal of trees on both sides of the Imatra crossing and a first three-kilometre section of fence to test its resistance to winter frost (or a possible massive influx of people from the east). This first section of the wall should be ready in June. Construction will then continue and another 70 kilometres of fence will be installed between 2023 and 2025, mainly in south-eastern Finland. The project includes nets more than three metres high with barbed wire, night-vision cameras, lights and loudspeakers. “We had to make difficult decisions: after the invasion of Ukraine it was clear that the status quo was no longer sustainable,” Prime Minister Marin stressed at the SAMAK in Helsinki, hoping that the ratification of his country’s NATO membership by Hungary and Turkey would be completed “as soon as possible”.
