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Finnish government plans to close border with Russia on Thursday

It is not yet known if it is planned to close all or some border crossings with Russia

HELSINKI, November 15. /TASS/. Finland’s government intends to close border crossings with Russia on Thursday for national security, Helsingin Sanomat reported citing sources.

According to the newspaper, the potential closure has been caused by the fact that the situation on Finland’s eastern border changed on Wednesday. It is not yet known if it is planned to close all or some border crossings with Russia.

The government was supposed to decide on the restrictive measures at its emergency meeting that started at 5:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. GMT). However, the discussions were dragged out, so the final decision was postponed to Thursday.

Earlier, Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said that the Finnish authorities had decided to start preparatory work to restrict traffic on the border with Russia. Helsinki has reported about 60 undocumented asylum seekers arriving at the eastern border this week. Last week, there were 71. According to the border service, they are not Russian citizens, but most of them are from the Middle East. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo suggested that some or even all checkpoints on the border with Russia might be closed.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin deeply regrets that Helsinki has chosen to walk away from what used to be good relations with Russia. In the meantime, Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia hopes Finland will abandon the idea of locking up the border between the two countries.

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