MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian prime minister also stated that Russia cannot legally deny entry to migrants traveling through its territory to the European Union.
"This kind of migration is a threat not only to Finland, but to the Russian Federation as well. Therefore, claims that this is part of our policy or that it is an organized campaign are pure nonsense," Medvedev said at a joint press conference with his Finnish counterpart Juha Sipila.
The northernmost migrant route has been used by an estimated 5,500 refugees. Those asylum seekers choosing to enter Norway through Russia are not eligible for asylum, according to Oslo, as they arrived from a safe country.
Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ruled out taking them back as they provided false information to the Russian authorities, while the Norwegian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik that Oslo and Moscow were holding constructive dialogue on the issue of refugees on their shared border.