As businesses leave, farming on Finland's Russian border takes on new meaning
Lappeenranta, FINLAND – Along Finland’s frontier with Russia, farmers are now the eyes and ears policing the border for trespassers.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 heightened security concerns in Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre border – some fenced and some protected only by lakes and forest – with the former Soviet power. A few months later, Helsinki accused Moscow of using migrants as a pressure tactic and closed its eastern frontier, further ratcheting up tensions.
For a country of less than six million people, securing such a vast area is a serious challenge.
The few farms scattered among Karelia’s forests, and the families that run them, have since taken on a new strategic role that has drawn attention in Brussels. “They greatly contribute to the EU’s line of defence,” EU Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen told the European Parliament in July 2025, after visiting Finland.
