In a clear victory without visible consequences, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has asked that Finnish authorities to cite reasons for the closure of the Finnish-Russian border. The request is significant considering that the ECHR rejects about 90% of complaints seeking answers from state authroities.
In the face of the ECHR decision, Finland appears to be on a war footing with its Russian neighbor even if President Alexander Stubb said recently that Finns should prepapre for better political relations with Moscow.
Despite such a mesage, the government sends mixed messages by announcing that the country plans to quit a global convention banning anti-personnel landmines and boost defense spending to at least 3% of GDP by 2029, according to CNN.
One of the problems of the so-called pushback law, which allows Finnish border guards to deny their human right to seek asylum, is its credibility. In order to pitch the law to other MPs and the public, Interioir Minister Mari Rantanan of the Perussuomalaiset (PS)*, is the claim that “thousands” of asylum seekers are waiting to cross the border and claim asylum.
Without offering any proof, Rantanen has accused Russia on steering asylum seekers to the border to increase pressure on EU as we have seen at the Belarus-Lithuainian, – Latvian and -Polisih border.
The nine plantiffs cite in the compaint to the ECHR how their human rights have been breached. Some of them have families in Russia, whom they cannot visit, antother plantiff said that he cannot receive a Russian pension made more difficult by the sanction against Russian banks.
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