Finland is building the first stretch of a fence on its border with Russia on Friday, less than two weeks after it joined the NATO military alliance to complete a security U-turn taken in response to the war in Ukraine,
Reuters reports.
Fearing retaliation from the east following its NATO application, the government decided last year to construct the barrier, primarily in case Russia moved to flood the border with migrants.
Finland aims to guard against a repeat of events on the European Union's eastern frontier in Poland in winter 2021, when the bloc accused neighbouring Belarus - a staunch Russian ally - of engineering a crisis by flying in migrants from the Middle East, giving them visas and pushing them across the border.
Made of steel mesh, the Finnish fence is scheduled to cover some 200 kilometres (125 miles) of the most critical parts of its border by the end of 2026. Project manager Ismo Kurki said on Friday that, while it is not intended to stop any invasion attempt, the fence will have surveillance equipment.
Meanwhile, there has so far been little human activity along the border, which stretches to 1,300 km in all.
