Finland extends Russia border closure until April 14 saying Moscow hasn’t stopped sending migrants

By JARI TANNER
Associated Press

HELSINKI (AP) — Finland’s government says that it will extend the closure of the country’s border with Russia until April 14. Finland says it sees no signs that Moscow was stopping its “hybrid operation” of funneling migrants across the frontier to the Nordic nation. Finland closed the 1,340-kilometer or 832-mile land border late last year after about 1,300 migrants without proper documentation or visas had arrived across the frontier since September. It was an unusually high number coming just months after Finland joined the NATO military alliance. The government said in Thursday’s statement that “instrumentalized migration” from Russia poses “a serious threat to Finland’s national security and public order.”