If directing asylum seekers to the border is Russia’s hybrid influence, Finland has acted in a very predictable way, thinks Heikki Heiskanen, ‘s Russia correspondent.
MOSCOW On Monday, a total of two asylum seekers arrived at the Raja-Joosepi border crossing. In Finland, the media follows the events of the eastern border with bated breath.
Even though this kind of hybrid influence scenario has been warned about year after year, it still seems to come as a shock.
It is obvious that the Russian authorities control the movement, although part of it is probably business – someone collects the money of those who want to go to Finland and through it to Europe.
You can imagine as a game of thoughthow the situation would look like in the eyes of the “comrade colonel”, i.e. the man from the security service, directing this type of operation from behind his desk.
From his point of view, Finns have reacted in a very predictable way. Asylum seekers are a cost-effective means of causing headaches for the Finnish authorities.
The media is in overdrive, and the ministers are arguing in public. Opinion polls call for the eastern border to be closed.
The Minister of Justice criticizes the Deputy Chancellor of Justice, to which the Prime Minister says that the review of the Legality Supervisor is not a matter for the Government. Therefore, the Minister of Finance is responsible in practice by criticizing deputy chancellor of justice for “idiot liberal legal interpretations”.
If the intention was to cause a boil In Finnish society, it succeeded.
Perhaps the comrade colonel would have been surprised if Finland had coldly received the asylum applications and processed them in the normal process without fanfare.
The number of arrivals increased rapidly just at the point when the situation became public, and they still cannot be considered so large that they would bring down a functioning society.
If this is a hybrid operation, the closing of the border crossings cannot have come as a surprise to the planners. It may have been part of the script.
The complete closure of Finland’s eastern border would not be a bad thing at all for the Russian authorities. It would send a message to Russian citizens that they are rejected in the West. Life for Russians living in Finland is getting even more difficult.
Those who rose from the Russian security service those in power want people to choose sides. In their black-and-white worldview, mixing and ambiguity is a threat.
to the President of Russia to Vladimir Putin has built an image as a judoka who knows how to use the opponent’s own strength against him.
It is unlikely that the Russian leadership is playing any ingenious four-dimensional chess, but in the case of Finland, the basic moves already seem to be going through.
Hit and sunk, Comrade Colonel!