VIENNA, February 9. /TASS/. Helsinki does not currently fear an attack from Russia but sees the country as "an existential threat," Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told the Presse newspaper.
"We don’t currently fear a conventional military attack. However, we can see that Russia is an existential threat in the long term, which affects not just some European countries but our entire continent," she said.
According to Valtonen, "a hybrid war" is underway, with Russia allegedly sending "people who don’t have the necessary documents" to the border with Finland.
The Finnish authorities started reporting the arrival of asylum seekers from third countries from Russia in November 2023. Over 1,300 people arrived in the country last fall, Finland’s Immigration Service said. Helsinki eventually decided to close all vehicle checkpoints on the border with Russia starting on November 30. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Finland’s move was creating new dividing lines in Europe.
Finland formally joined NATO in April 2023. In December, Helsinki and Washington signed a defense cooperation agreement under which Finland will provide the US with access to 15 bases in the Nordic country. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the agreement would further raise tensions between Moscow and Helsinki.