Threats, Challenges, and Finnish-Russian Cross-Border Security Cooperation: A Finnish Perspective Jussi LAINE 1 Abstract: Finland‟s security is integrally linked with its immediate surroundings, Europe, and global development. Given that Finland considers Russia to be one of the main challenges to its security, cross-border security cooperation with it is limited. Over the years the Finnish border authorities have, nevertheless, developed effective joint working practices with their Russian counterparts which provide a unique communication channel, even in the present geopolitical climate. The present paper address the Finnish- Russia security cooperation, and its lack, within a wider European frame and pits the practical experiences against ongoing theoretical discussion on security and threat perceptions. It argues that despite the more multifaceted understandings of borders and the EUropeanised rhetoric, the Finnish-Russian border is still very much a classic state border guarded by two states from their respective perspectives. In the Finnish-Russian case the content of cooperation has more to do with border management than with more coherent border security, as the former is build on a more common ground than the latter. Increased cooperation and Russian convergence with EU models of border security and management would certainly be of benefit, but Russia‟s willi ngness to cooperate seems half-hearted. Keywords: border, security, management, Finland, Russia Introduction to the geographical region For most of its 1,324 kilometres, stretching from the Gulf of Finland to the far north, the Finnish-Russian border runs through forests and extremely sparsely populated rural areas with poor road connections. The metropolis of St Petersburg, lying some one hundred and fifty kilometres from the border, is the only notable exception. Most of the border, 1,269 kilometres, lies on dry land, the rest being covered by lakes and waterways. The Finnish-Russian border also functions as an external border of the European Union (EU), as well as that of the Schengen Area. Although there are some small towns and villages near the border, urban centres are far away from each other and from the border, precluding the existence of any real twin cities. The actual borderline is reinforced on either side by a special border zone, accessible only with permission from the Border Guard authority. At its widest on the Finnish side the zone is three kilometres across. On the Russian side of the border the zone extends anywhere between five and one hundred and thirty kilometres (during the Soviet period the zone extended in places to a width of two hundred kilometres) from the border, access to which is controlled at various inland checkpoints. This makes it more difficult to get to the actual border without proper documentation. On the Russian side there is also high fencing, barbed wire, and sand fields eight to ten metres wide in places to prevent or expose illegal movement. None of this exists on the Finnish side. This is largely because it is commonly accepted that illegal flows – be they of people or goods – 1 Karelian Institute, University of Eastern Finland. E-mail: jussi.laine@uef.fi.