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RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

 * Photos
 * Ukraine Goes on Defense
 * E.U. Deal to Fund Ukraine
 * Ukraine’s Combat Medics
 * How Russia Silences Dissent

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Russia-Ukraine War

 * Photos
 * Ukraine Goes on Defense
 * E.U. Deal to Fund Ukraine
 * Ukraine’s Combat Medics
 * How Russia Silences Dissent

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RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

 * Photos
 * Ukraine Goes on Defense
 * E.U. Deal to Fund Ukraine
 * Ukraine’s Combat Medics
 * How Russia Silences Dissent

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ON A FROZEN BORDER, FINLAND PUZZLES OVER A ‘RUSSIAN GAME’

As it votes on Sunday for a new president, NATO’s newest member says Moscow is
testing it by turning asylum seekers into a political pressure point.

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Ville Kuusisto, a Finnish border guard master sergeant, at the crossing near the
Russian town of Vyborg.Credit...Juho Kuva for The New York Times

By Erika Solomon

Erika Solomon reported from Helsinki and Nuijamaa, Finland, on the border with
Russia, speaking to asylum seekers, political leaders and security experts.

Published Feb. 10, 2024Updated Feb. 12, 2024, 2:58 p.m. ET


Poking up through the snow drifts on the Finnish-Russian border lies a symbol of
Moscow’s biggest provocation yet toward NATO’s newest member: a sprawling heap
of broken bicycles.

The battered bikes are sold for hundreds of dollars on the Russian side to
asylum seekers from as far away as Syria and Somalia. They are then encouraged —
sometimes forced, according to Finnish guards — to cross the border. Finns say
it is a hybrid warfare campaign against their country, using some of the world’s
most desperate people, just as it is staking out a new position in a shifting
world order.

“Some of the bikes didn’t even have pedals — sometimes they’d link arms, to help
each other keep moving,” said Ville Kuusisto, a Finnish border guard master
sergeant, at the crossing near the Russian town of Vyborg.

As Finns vote on Sunday for a new president, who will be responsible for foreign
policy and act as commander in chief, Finland has become fixated on its 830-mile
border, the longest with Russia of any NATO country. How Finns handle the
challenges there is critical not only for them, but also for their new allies on
both sides of the Atlantic.




The presidential election, now in its second and final round, is the first since
Finland officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization last year after
decades of nonalignment, looking to bolster its own security after Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine.


Image

Election posters for first round of the Finnish presidential race last month.
Finns will vote on Sunday in the second and final round.Credit...Sergei
Grits/Associated Press

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