Russian president Vladimir Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov has denied accusations that the Kremlin is behind the increase in the number of undocumented asylum seekers arriving at Finland's eastern border checkpoints.
Finland's government decided last week to close four border crossings in the southeast of the country following a significant daily rise in the number of arrivals.
The Finnish Border Guard said over the weekend that Russian border officials have been deliberately funneling undocumented asylum seekers to the Finnish border checkpoints and have barred them from returning to Russia.
Authorities in Finland suspect the Kremlin is attempting to apply pressure on Finland and sow discord within Finnish society because of Finland's ongoing support for Ukraine as well as the Nordic nation's decision to join Nato.
"We do not accept such accusations. Naturally, the border crossing is used by those who have the legal right to do so. In this regard, our border guards fully comply with all their official instructions," Peskov said, as quoted in a report by the Russian news agency TASS.
Peskov further noted that the situation will not be easy to resolve because of how far relations between Finland and Russia have deteriorated.
"There is no dialogue as such [between Finland and Russia], not through our fault. Actually, we were not the initiators of curtailing the dialogue," TASS reported Peskov as saying.
He also added that the Finnish government has taken a "Russophobic" position.
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