Lithuania saw no reason to close the border with Russia

Lithuania will not close all checkpoints on the border with RUSSIA following Finland, the HEAD of the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said. According to her, the situation at the border remains calm, and the authorities have “clear indicators of threats”

Lithuania does not see the need to follow Finland in closing all checkpoints on the border with Russia; the migration situation is currently calm. This was stated by the country's Minister of Internal Affairs Agne Bilotaite, LRT reports.

According to her, Lithuania “supports Finland,” which decided to close all border checkpoints on the border with Russia, but it itself sees no reason for such a decision.

“So far we do not see the need for a regional solution [to close the border]. It's still calm at the borders of Lithuania. We have clear threat indicators, according to which we will act. We are monitoring the situation and will react if changes occur,” Bilotaite said.

According to the 2021 Lithuanian census, 141 thousand Russians lived in the country (about 5% of the population). There are 11 checkpoints on the border between the countries, four of which are on the border with the Kaliningrad region.

On November 28, Finnish authorities announced that at midnight on November 30, the last operating checkpoint on the border with Russia (Raya-Jooseppi - Lotta) would be closed. Helsinki clarified that all checkpoints will be closed until December 13, and the reception of applications from applicants for international protection will be concentrated at airports and seaports. According to the head of the Finnish Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mari Rantanen, the decision was made “to protect the national security of Finland.”

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Finland closed all border checkpoints due to the influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa who tried to get there through Russian territory. According to Helsinki, the Russian side is helping migrants from third countries approaching the border, despite the fact that many of them do not have documents to pass through it.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called these accusations “very strange” and promised to take retaliatory measures. The Kremlin believed that Finland had decided to deliberately distance itself from good relations with Russia.

Somalis heading to Finland through Russia told RBC that they found information on how to get to Europe through Russian territory on the Internet. According to them, so-called managers helped them in this matter. Migrants were transported to the border by transport companies, and they crossed it on bicycles.