Germany and Finland have stated that Russia deliberately facilitates migrants in crossing the border to destabilize Western countries. As a result, on November 16, the Finnish authorities plan to close border crossings on the border with Russia.

This was reported by DW.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, together with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinistö, accused Russia of intentionally assisting refugees in crossing borders to destabilize Western countries.

At a press conference in Bonn, Niinistö announced that Finland has recently recorded an increase in migrants on the Russian border.

"Citizens of third countries arrive from Russia, where they are likely to receive assistance for a certain fee," the statement said.

Steinmeier pointed out that lately, in addition to the usual routes through which migrants enter Central Europe (such as through the Western Balkans), there have been more cases of crossing the border with Russia through Belarus and Poland to Germany.

"Clearly, this does not make internal German debates about migration and refugee acceptance any easier. I believe people in Russia and other countries are well aware of how difficult these discussions are and that they also contribute to internal turmoil and, consequently, political difficulties in countries like Finland and Germany. So, I suspect this is happening not entirely unintentionally," added the President of Germany.