Helsinki, 16) - -Four of the eight eastern border crossings with Russia will be closed early Monday, the Finnish government announced today. Helsinki accused the Moscow authorities of deliberately turning a blind eye to illegal immigrants.

The Nordic country of Finland has a 1,340-km-long border with Russia. According to the Finnish Border Authority (Finnish Border Guard, Raja), the number of illegal entrants has increased significantly since August, mainly without visa holders from the Middle East and Africa.

"The government has decided today to close the crossings of Valima (Vaalimaa), Nuigama (Nuijamaa), Immatra (Imatra) and Nera (Niirala)," Interior Minister (Mari Rantanen) told reporters.」

Finnish Prime Minister Sergei Orpo (Petteri Orpo) has accused Russia of taking deliberate actions to destabilize Finland in response to Finland's accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) earlier this year.

"We are ready to deal with all kinds of malicious behavior that Russia does, so this is not surprising," he said.」

The authorities in Moscow have called Finland's decision to join NATO an "attack on Russian (national) security" and warned in April of "tactical and strategic countermeasures".