The Russian government has issued an official order to temporarily suspend the movement of people, vehicles and goods through railway border crossings on its borders with Finland, Estonia and Latvia. The measure affects a total of seven key railway crossings on the European border, five of which are on the Finnish line, including the crossings in Vyborg, Värtsilä and Svetogorsk.
The information was first disseminated by Finnish state media Yle, which reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Helsinki learned about the decision from media publications, as an official advance notice from Moscow was not sent in time. According to the Russian government decree, cited by the Russian news agency TASS, the Russian Federation's Foreign Ministry was instructed to notify neighboring capitals only after the decree came into force. Finland has already closed all its land road connections with Russia since the end of 2023 due to hybrid migration waves organized by Moscow, and the new decision also cuts off the few remaining logistical rail connections in the region.