Russian authorities are trying to mobilize illegal migrants – ISW

The Russian authorities want to send illegal migrants who ended up in Russia due to provocations on the Russian-Finnish border to participate in the war against Ukraine.

This is reported with reference to the ISW report.

It is reported that the military is trying to mobilize migrants from the Middle East and Africa, whom the Russian authorities massively detained along the Russian-Finnish border in mid-November after the closure of border crossings.

It is believed that the deportation of these migrants may be replaced by sending them to fight in Ukraine. According to one of the sources, the Russians quickly transported a group of migrants who had signed military contracts to the Russian-Ukrainian border.

It should be noted that Russia artificially created a migration crisis on the border with Finland as a tactic of hybrid warfare designed to destabilize NATO and the EU, but Finland's response quickly led to the failure of the effort.

As a reminder, four checkpoints on the border between Finland and Russia have been closed since November 18. Recently, the Finnish government decided to temporarily close all border crossings on the border with Russia.

Later it was reported that Finland closed the entire border with Russia and reinforced it with double barriers. At the moment, only freight trains are running there.

Author – Anastasiya Glotova, 07/12/2023