Finland responds to Russia's border revision plans in the Gulf of Finland

The President and Prime Minister of Finland, Alexander Stubb and Petteri Orpo expressed their stance on reports of Russia's plans for a unilateral change of borders in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland. "Finland acts as always: calmly and based on facts," they declared. According to experts, speaking of a provocation or a hybrid operation is currently impossible.

The Finnish leaders emphasized that Russia has not initiated any "contact" with the Finnish side on this matter.

Jukka Kopra, head of the parliamentary national defence committee, which met on Wednesday to discuss the Russian plans, told the media that, for now, there was no reason to accuse Russia of a hybrid attack.

According to him, Russia's information can currently be interpreted as a normal initiation of a border control process. He recalled that Russia and Finland's last joint border inspection occurred in 2017.

Commander Jukka Savolainen, director at the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats in Helsinki, noted that Russia may have grounds to change its borders following international norms.

He gave the example of islets or rocks rising above the water's surface. In a conversation with Yle radio, he emphasized that "it is currently difficult to assess the seriousness of the matter," for instance, whether these are everyday actions based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

The Moscow Times reported that the Russian authorities plan to unilaterally change the country's maritime borders with Lithuania and Finland in the Baltic Sea. The authors of the project, presented on Tuesday by the Russian Ministry of Defence, argue that the current border, in effect since 1985, "does not fully correspond to current geographical conditions" - such information was provided by Radio Svoboda, citing a Russian government resolution.

The Kremlin has decided to change the borders in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland and near Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk in the Kaliningrad Oblast. The Russian side proposes adjustments that concern several islands near the Finnish coast and the Vistula and Curonian Spits, among others.

Sweden also announced on Wednesday that it had strengthened its defences on Gotland in the Baltic Sea, fearing that "Russia may try to take control of it," said the kingdom's supreme commander of the armed forces, Mikael Byden. Who controls Gotland controls the Baltic Sea," he added.