Finnish police and the Border Guard suspect a scheme that turned paper employment into residence permits and citizenship, Yle reported. Investigators believe one man organized it through companies that did little or no business, and that it may have run for more than two decades. The suspected organizer and the people who obtained citizenship are Russian nationals.

Jobs that existed only in documents

Authorities suspect the main figure arranged fictitious employment relationships for foreign nationals. That paperwork let them apply for Finnish residence permits and, later, for citizenship. From 2003 he registered several companies in southeastern Finland, police and the Border Guard said. The firms either did no real business at all or very little of it. The suspected criminal arrangement appeared shortly after 2003.

Applicants are suspected of paying for the fictitious jobs and for help assembling their documents.

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At least 12 citizenships, five unfinished applications

At least 12 people obtained Finnish citizenship without grounds, by the investigation's account. Five more naturalizations were still unfinished when the preliminary investigation opened in 2024. Criminal police commissioner Teppo Tähtinen said the scale of the case came as a surprise to investigators. 

Investigators also believe the arrangement ran further back, with people naturalized earlier possibly involved. The statute of limitations has expired on those cases.

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The preliminary investigation found that the main suspect and his accomplices sat Finnish language exams for other people. They also completed study assignments in Finnish on their behalf. Without that, the applicants probably could not have obtained citizenship, the investigation found.

Naturalization normally requires five to eight years of residence on a residence permit, Finnish or Swedish at B1 level, and confirmed income, The Moscow Times reported. In 2025, 14,689 people received Finnish citizenship. Russians were among the nationalities filing the most applications, together with citizens of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Somalia.

Finland's harder line toward Russia

Finland has kept its eastern border with Russia closed, and Helsinki has accused Moscow of steering migrants toward the crossings. The country has also rearmed since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, raising its reserve age and setting a long-term troop target. Last week Finnish authorities opened an inquiry into a suspected Russian airspace violation over the Gulf of Finland.

Finland is investigating a suspected violation of its airspace by a Russian aircraft over the Gulf of Finland, its Defense Ministry said. Authorities have not identified the aircraft or said whether the crossing was deliberate, and the country's border guard has opened an inquiry. The case adds Finland to a growing list of NATO states reporting Russian intrusions along the alliance's frontiers.

What Finland reported

A Russian aircraft is suspected of violating Finnish airspace in the western Gulf of Finland on the afternoon of 20 August, Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said. He said the country treats every such case seriously and that an inquiry is running.

"Every suspected territorial violation is taken seriously. An investigation is underway," Häkkänen said.

The ministry statement did not name the aircraft. The Border Guard later identified it as a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance plane, Finnish broadcaster Yle reported, saying the suspected crossing lasted about three minutes and reached some 4.7 nautical miles into Finnish airspace at its deepest. It said it would release more as the inquiry advances.

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A pattern along NATO's frontiers

The suspected crossing follows two earlier Finnish cases this year. Finland suspected Russian military aircraft of entering its airspace in May, off Porkkala while one avoided a thunderstorm, and again in June, summoning Russia's chargé d'affaires over the two incidents.

Other members of the alliance keep logging similar incidents. Romania has destroyed a sea drone and recovered aerial-drone debris on its soil, and Russian drones have struck near Moldova's border with Ukraine. Kyiv has also accused Russia of steering Ukrainian drones toward Finland and the Baltic States through electronic warfare.

Finland joined NATO in 2023 and has since rearmed sharply, ending a domestic ban on nuclear weapons as part of a wider defense shift. It has stepped up support for Ukraine, most recently backing a power-plant project before Russia's winter energy campaign. Helsinki has also argued it is too early to negotiate with Moscow while the war continues.