Finland wants to ban Russians from buying real estate in the country because of a threat to national security. The relevant draft law is planned to be submitted to the parliament by the end of the year.
Bloomberg writes about this with reference to the Minister of Defense of Finland Antti Häkkänen, who proposed such an idea.
"It is based on the war of aggression that Russia is waging and the assessment made about it," Häkkänen argued for the initiative.
The document will not clearly name the state, but the law will apply to citizens of countries whose homeland "violated the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of another state and may threaten the security of Finland." The ban will also apply to legal entities that "reside in the territory of such state or that are owned or influenced by a citizen or organization of such state."
The Finnish government will also consider "more effective" expropriation and oversight of assets "that are critical to public security and security of supply."
Finland, which joined NATO last April, already allows the state to intervene on national security grounds in real estate transactions before they take place. For many years, Finland has been troubled by suspicious objects — some of them had fortifications with helipads, unprofitable hotels, the owners of which were connected to Russia. It is also about buying real estate near critical infrastructure.
In June of this year, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said in an interview with Bloomberg News that such facilities "could be used to cause damage or perhaps as a springboard for a larger operation."
Such actions of the Finnish authorities regarding their own national security are not isolated. In July of this year, the countryʼs parliament adopted a law that allows border guards to return asylum seekers to Russia. This is how the country is fighting the Kremlinʼs attempt to undermine the countryʼs national security through migration along the 1 300-kilometer border between the countries. Among the NATO countries, this is the longest land border with Russia.
What is happening on the Russian-Finnish border
In recent years, Finland has been preparing for the fact that Russia will send a large number of asylum seekers to the border. The Russians have already done this on the Finnish border during the migration crisis of 2015.
In November 2023, border guards began to report that an unusually large number of people who did not have entry documents were trying to enter Finland through the checkpoints on the southeastern border. On November 15, the Prime Minister of Finland stated that Russia helps illegal migrants enter the country, including citizens of the Russian Federation, countries of the Middle East and Africa. Due to this surge in illegal migration, Finland has decided to close border crossings on its border with Russia.
In April 2024, Finland indefinitely extended the closure of checkpoints on the border with Russia.