page_title: Finland–Russia border
hierarchical_section_title: Finland–Russia border
caption_attribution_description: English: Finnish (blue–white) and Russian (red–green) boundary marks at the easternmost point of Finland, small nameless island on Virmajärvi lake in Ilomantsi, Finland Suomi: Suomen (sini–valkoiset) ja Venäjän (puna–vihreät) rajapyykit Suomen itäisimmässä pisteessä nimettömässä saaressa Ilomantsin Virmajärvellä
context_page_description: The Finnish–Russian border is the roughly north/south international border between the Republic of Finland and the Russian Federation. Some 1,340 km long, it runs mostly through uninhabited taiga forests and sparsely populated rural areas, not following any particular natural feature or river. It is also part of the external border of both the political and economic union; European Union and the loose confederation;
  Commonwealth of Independent States.
  Border crossings are controlled and patrolled by the Finnish Border Guard and the Border Guard Service of Russia, who also enforce border zones. Entry to a border zone requires a permit. The electronic surveillance on the Finnish side is concentrated most heavily on the "southernmost 200 kilometers" and is constantly growing in sophistication. The Finnish Border Guard conducts "regularly irregular" dog patrols to catch anyone venturing into the border zone. Russia maintains its 500-year-old border patrol in the Arctic region as elsewhere, and plans to upgrade Soviet Union-era border technologies to both save on cost and to fully maximize the efficiency of the Border Service by the year 2020.
context_section_description: The Finnish–Russian border is the roughly north/south international border between the Republic of Finland (European Union member) and the Russian Federation. Some 1,340 km (830 mi) long, it runs mostly through uninhabited taiga forests and sparsely populated rural areas, not following any particular natural feature or river. It is also part of the external border of both the political and economic union; European Union (EU) and the loose confederation;   
  Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). 
  Border crossings are controlled and patrolled by the Finnish Border Guard and the Border Guard Service of Russia, who also enforce border zones (0.1–3 km (0.062–1.864 mi) on the Finnish side, at least 7.5 km (4.7 mi) of Border Security Zone on the Russian side). Entry to a border zone requires a permit. The electronic surveillance on the Finnish side is concentrated most heavily on the "southernmost 200 kilometers" and is constantly growing in sophistication. The Finnish Border Guard conducts "regularly irregular" dog patrols to catch anyone venturing into the border zone. Russia maintains its 500-year-old border patrol in the Arctic region as elsewhere, and plans to upgrade Soviet Union-era border technologies to both save on cost and to fully maximize the efficiency of the Border Service by the year 2020.  However, Lieutenant-General Vladimir Streltsov, deputy head of the Russian border service, noted that electronic surveillance will never replace the human element.
  The border can be crossed only at official checkpoints, and at least one visa is required for most people. Major border checkpoints are found in Vaalimaa and Nuijamaa, where customs services on both sides inspect and levy fees on imported goods.
  The northern endpoint of the border between Norway, Finland, and Russia  form a  tripoint marked by Treriksrøysa, a stone cairn  near Muotkavaara (69°03′06″N 28°55′45″E). On the south, the boundary is on  the shore of Gulf of Finland, in which there is a maritime boundary between the respective territorial waters, terminating in a narrow strip of international waters between Finnish and Estonian territorial waters.
caption: The easternmost point of Finland is the western part of an island in Lake Virmajärvi, divided by the border. The white and blue striped pole on the left represents the Finnish border zone, while the red and green striped pole on the right represents the Russian border zone. The short white pole in the middle marks the actual border.
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