STORSKOG Viima drops the last yellowed birch leaves on a fell in the northeast corner of Norway. The only sound comes from the chainsaw of a Norwegian lumberjack – a bush is being cleared around the border station.
It has been exceptionally quiet at the only border station between Norway and Russia since the beginning of October. The reason is that Norway then blackmailed the Russians entry restrictions Following the example of Finland and other EU countries.
Limiting border crossings is Norway’s reaction to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
At the same time, the last gate for Russian motorists to the west closed.
Ordinary passenger cars registered in Russia are no longer allowed across the border, with few exceptions. You can only cross the border with vehicles with at least ten seats.
However, the Russians immediately came up with a new way: minibuses, which are now used more than before. As long as there are at least ten passenger seats, it doesn’t matter how many passengers there are.
When visited the Storskog border crossing on two days in early October for a total of a few hours, two minibuses registered in Russia crossed the border from Russia to Norway.
In one of them, there was only one passenger, whose task was reportedly to bring a dog from Murmansk to Kirkkoniemi. The passenger and the driver did not want to speak to the reporter. The owner of the dog who was in front of them, a Russian man living in Kirkkoniemi, did not want to be interviewed either.
The Russians have adapted to the new regulations
At least in the early days of October, the police did not have to turn any Russian cars back.
– The Russians know the new regulations well and have adapted to the situation, says the leading police officer at the Storskog border station Leif Rune Saltewhom interviewed at the border station.
Since the latest restrictions came into effect, an average of 50 Russians have crossed the border from Russia to Norway every day, Salte says. According to him, it is 40 percent less than before October.
People cross the border both to visit relatives and to shop. On the Norwegian side, the closest small town is Kirkkoniemi, where about 400 Russians live. In addition to restrictions on border traffic, connections have decreased because obtaining visas has become more difficult.
With the war in Ukraine, Salte’s remote workplace has become the stage of world politics. However, according to Salte, the cooling between the countries has not brought tension in relation to colleagues behind the border barrier.
– Daily meetings and routines go on as normal, but otherwise we have nothing to do with them. After the meetings, we go our separate ways, says Salte.
At most, more tourists visit the border than before. Motorhomes and tourist buses stop at the gate of the border station for photos and then turn back towards Kirkkoniemi.
The Russian border has become a gateway to the unknown, an exotic and exciting tourist destination.
The border between Norway and Russia is 198 kilometers long. It may not be crossed outside the Storskog border station.
Unlike Finland, there is no border zone in Norway, so anyone can move right on the surface of the border without a special permit.
There are also settlements very close to the border. Among the residents of the border, there are a handful of young foreigners, for whom the experience is special. A fifth of the more than 40 students at the local folk college are foreigners.
– My parents were not happy when they heard that I was coming to the Russian border, because this is very close to the border, just on the other side of the river, says the German student Ina Starke.
Starke himself is not afraid of the border. He lives in the university dormitory almost on the bank of the border river.
– Beyond the border, the forest looks the same as here, but there are no roads or people, as if there is nothing there. It doesn’t seem particularly threatening, says Starke.
Student: “The border is like the edge of the world, after which there is nothing”
Starke, 25, is a veterinarian and is now studying how to work with sled dogs. He spends a year at Pasvik folk school, which is located in the village of Svanvik in the Paatsjoki valley.
interviewed Starke and his fellow students on the river bank at a Norwegian laundromat.
At this point, the border river has widened into a lake, the opposite shore of which is a kilometer away. On the Russian side, at the peak of the danger, a steel watchtower rises above the trees, but no one is visible.
The name of the lake is Salmijärvi. Many place names on the Russian side are still Finnish and date from the time when Petsamo belonged to Finland until the end of the Continuation War, until 1944.
Along the Paatsjoki, the water of Inarijärvi flows into the Barents Sea. The border between Norway and Russia follows tens of kilometers of the river’s deepest bed – which is not necessarily in the middle. In winter, the border guards put up signs on the ice so that students or other skiers do not accidentally turn to the wrong side.
22 year old French Mathieu Kuntz points out that the border is rare in Europe, because in Central Europe the borders of the states are no longer distinguished in any way.
– It is forbidden to have anything to do with the Russian side, and that’s why it feels as if it doesn’t even exist. This is like the edge of the world, after which there is nothing, says Kuntz.
It saddens Kuntzia that the border has now become so closed.
– It is a loss that there are no more Russian students at our school. We have lost part of the cultural exchange and diversity, and we cannot learn from each other, says Kuntz, who is studying to be a tour guide.
The border guards suddenly appear on the scene
After the interviews, the sound of a motorboat starts to be heard from the direction of the border.
The black rubber boat of the Norwegian border guards is approaching the shore at high speed. Soon it will be attached to the floating dock, which already has two others patrol boat.
Five border guards in field uniforms begin to unload their equipment on the beach. There are no fixed weapons visible on the boat, but each border guard has an assault rifle as his personal weapon.
The conversation with the border guards is friendly, but short.
I ask, can you also see Russian border guards on the lake?
– Not very often, sometimes.
So they have boats too?
– Yes. It’s pretty limited what we can say, the young border guard answers.
The border patrol will soon get a ride from the beach to their border guard station, which is located next to the national college.
An impressive line-up of ATVs and SUVs can be seen in the yard of the guard station, but they are not allowed to be photographed.
The main base of the border guards is located next to the Kirkkoniemi airport. In the garrison of Sør-Varanger there are about 800 soldiers. Their commander Michael Spanne Rozmara tells by e-mail that three of the battalion’s five companies participate in guarding the border every day.
Rozmara does not directly answer the question of whether the border guard has been increased as a result of the war. According to him, the border is guarded based on the current threat assessment.
At the northern end, you could cross the border river by wading
To the north of the Storskog border station, the border mainly runs through terrain dotted with almost bare tundra and stunted forests.
The northernmost ten kilometers before the shore of the Barents Sea, the border again follows the river. However, Vuoremijoki is very narrow. It looks like you could even wade over it in many places. The border guards must have been particularly careful here.
Raja also attracts tourists in Vuoremijoki. The road along the border river ends at the seaside in the village of Grense Jakobselv, which no longer has any permanent inhabitants.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the border between Norway and Russia was extremely peaceful. For seven years, not a single illegal border crosser was caught at the border. Then the pace changed.
– After the summer of 2022, we have had three illegal border crossings, where a total of five people tried to get from Russia to Norway, Rozmara says.
Regarding the future of the border guard, Rozmara only says that the border jaeger battalion continues to develop its sensors and technical systems.