Russia seems an odd place for migrants to cross into Europe. It’s out of the way, actively invading Ukraine, and much of its borderland is hostile, snowy forest. But now that the southern and eastern routes into Europe are so dangerous, its implausibility is making it attractive.
To be clear, the route through Russia isn’t new; it caused a clash between Brussels and Moscow back in 2015-16. But it’s been so quiet of late that it wasn’t even mentioned in Frontex’s 2024 border crossing statistics. That seems to be changing. Some 900 people made the crossing last November alone, raising concerns in Helsinki and Brussels.
Predictably, European authorities have cried foul. Finnish officials have accused Russia of instrumentalising migration to retaliate against Finland for joining NATO in April 2023. And it is unlikely that they’re entirely wrong. But their finger pointing hides their own complicity.
