A growing number of asylum seekers arriving on the EU’s eastern frontier is forcing Baltic countries to consider border closures with Russia, due to fears the Kremlin is weaponizing desperate people to create a migration crisis on the Continent.

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are increasingly concerned after Finland last week shut all of its crossings with Russia for two weeks after undocumented migrants from crisis-hit countries in the Horn of Africa and Asia entered the Nordic nation.

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Estonia has previously said it is braced for a potential rise in the number of would-be migrants trying to cross into the EU via Russia and could close the frontier in response. A Finnish minister told POLITICO last week that some of the most common countries of origin included Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, as Russia uses migrants to carry out “deliberate, cynical, hybrid actions.”

Between them, Finland, Estonia and Latvia are the only three EU countries that border mainland Russia {snip}

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NATO has warned that “Russia is using migration as a tool to put pressure on other countries in Europe” in the wake of Finland’s decision to join the transatlantic military alliance.

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