There’s constant surveillance along the border between Norway and Russia in the far north, but surprisingly few physical barriers. That’s likely to change, since Russia poses a much higher defense threat and continues to send unwanted immigrants into neighbouring countries.
Now the Norwegian government is considering new high fencing along its border to Russia in the northeast. Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl has been inspired by Finland, which has been setting up high barbed-wire fences along its own much-longer border to Russia, complete with sensors that can set off alarms if anyone or anything approaches.
“That border fence is very interesting, not just because it’s forbidding, but also because it contains sensors and technology that make it possible to discover people moving close to the border,” Mehl told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) over the weekend. “That’s a measure that can be relevant for us, along parts of the entire border.”
It runs for 198 kilometers (around 115 miles) from the Barents Sea in the north to the spot farther south where the Norwegian, Russian and Finnish borders meet at Treriksrøysa. There are only physical barriers at and near the official Norwegian-Russian border crossing area at Storskog, east of Kirkenes. Otherwise the border runs south along the river Jakobselva, then west and north again over land towards Storskog, and then south along the river Pasvikelva that widens on its way south toward Nyrud.
A road runs close to the border on the Norwegian side, through several small settlements on the way to the Pasvik National Park. Otherwise it’s rather remote and wild territory, most of it under military control on the Russian side and largely unpopulated, except for the industrial area around Nikel.
Justice Minister Mehl, who has long claimed that Norway’s border to Russia can be closed quickly if warranted, says fencing “can be put up along the entire or parts of the border.” She visited the Finnish-Russian border area during an official trip this summer and thinks its fencing “can be a good idea in Norway.” She said the government “is looking at several measures,” including increased border patrol, more surveillance and improvements around the border station at Storskog to better handle traffic there.
Around 200 meters of the border area around Storskog was fenced off in 2016 in a move viewed as controversial since Norwegian and Russian residents in the area have had close ties for centuries and wanted “to stay friends.” Since Russia invaded Ukraine, however, sentiment and attitudes have changed.
Local police welcome all border control improvements. “I think we could gain from more fencing at various points along the border,” Finnmark’s police chief Ellen Katrine Hætta told NRK, without specifying where. Local officials had to deal with a refugee influx from Russia in 2015, when thousands of immigrants to Russia suddenly traveled on to the border area and obtained bicycles, which they could use to literally roll to the border and seek new asylum in Norway. Russian authorities have resorted to similar tactics against other neighbours including Finland and Poland.
Finland, now a member of NATO and even closer ally of Norway with an upcoming state visit of its new president, has been faced with hundreds of would-be asylum seekers showing up at northern border crossings from Russia in cold winter weather. Finland ultimately closed its border to Russia (which was believed to be punishing Finland for joining NATO) and has been reinforcing it ever since.
There have only been three known illegal border crossings into Norway from Russia since its president Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine. Among them was a defector from the former Russian militia group Wagner, who made it into Pasvik in January of last year.
Mehl seems most keen on fending off other illegal aliens, but experts question the value of new fencing. “The border could become more secure on the Norwegian side, but whether it will halt the stream of migrants approaching the border is another question,” Arild Moe, a researcher at Fridtjof Nansens Institute, told NRK. He notes that the Norwegian-Russian border is at the end of a highly militarized area on the Russian side, and now a “very sensitive area” in Russia that may no longer let migrants pass through.
Norway and Finland, meanwhile, are joining forces on various defense projects as NATO sets up a new northern headquarters with its Nordic members. Calls are also going out for the establishment of Norwegian defense forces in eastern Finnmark. They’ve earlier been kept more to the west, in order not to provoke the former Soviet Union and now, Putin. That may also change as the war in Ukraine drags on Russia continues to pose threats to other neighbours.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
