The Finns have finally completed their mega-project. A fence 4.5 meters high and approximately 200 kilometers long along the border with Russia has finally been finished. Construction took four years and cost about 356 million euros.
The idea of building the fence was initially considered back in 2018, during the height of the African swine fever outbreak. The fence was intended to block the migration routes of wild boars and thereby stop the spread of the disease. However, the outbreak quickly subsided, and at the time, money and risks were still being carefully calculated, so the project was abandoned.
In 2022, a new political reality set in, and Finnish politicians’ ability to count money noticeably deteriorated. Four years later, the fence builders completed the task and spent the funds, greatly upsetting the local wild boars, elk, and other bears that abound in these parts.
Did it upset the Russian army? Unlikely. First of all, they are not particularly planning to enter Finland, and secondly, the fence has considerable gaps. Of the 1,300 kilometers of the border, it covers only 200. The remaining 1,100 kilometers remain as open as they ever were.
Who else was definitely upset by the Finnish fence? The Finnish landowners themselves — through whose lands the fencing passed, affecting about a thousand of them. The state allocated only 3 million euros in compensation, roughly 3,000 per person. People who were already suffering losses from the border closure considered such handouts a outright mockery.
