Man arrested for tricking migrants with fake border in Russian forest

A man has been arrested for allegedly creating a fake border deep within a Russian forest that he used to trick would-be illegal immigrants into thinking they had arrived in the European Union.

The man's alleged trickery was uncovered when Russian border guards picked up four men who were under the impression they had crossed the real border into Finland.

"The man never planned to carry out his promises," Interfax news agency said of the pretend people-smuggler.

The BBC reported that the four men were from South Asia and had paid the bogus people-smuggler around $11,000 each to be taken across the border. The broadcaster said they were detained in a swampy forest in the Vyborg district of the Leningrad Oblast in northwest Russia on Nov 28.

The story emerged when, on Wednesday, a court in St Petersburg fined the would-be migrants for immigration offences and ordered their deportation from Russia.

Russian media said the fake people-smuggler has also been detained and is facing fraud charges.

The Daily Mail noted that footage posted on Russian social media appears to show agents from the Border Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, which is known as the FSB, arresting four people in a dark forest.

"The incredible adventures of the foreigners in the stillness of the night ended with a ruling of the Vyborg district court," the FSB said in a statement.

The man who created the fake border, which was replete with forged signs and replica fences, is believed to be from one of the former Soviet Union's republics in Central Asia, The Telegraph newspaper reported. The Times newspaper said the fake people-smuggler met the four in St Petersburg.

"In order not to lose such valuable clients, the citizen calling himself a guide decided to imitate a violation of the border, thus earning some easy money without providing any real help," the FSB said.

The Guardian newspaper said the man allegedly took the group on a circuitous route by car and on foot, through forests and around a lake. It said he even carried an inflatable dingy with him on the trip.

It is not known whether the incident was a one-off or whether the authorities believe the man had done the same thing before.

Russia's 1,340-kilometer border with Finland mostly runs through sparsely populated areas and is a relatively easy way for migrants to cross. Russia shares a border with several EU countries and is reportedly a popular staging point for people seeking to illegally enter the bloc.

In 2016, Russia and Finland briefly restricted border crossings to two locations and only allowed the citizens of Finland, Russia, and Belarus to cross because the borders were swamped with asylum seekers. At the time, there were reports that Russians living in the area were offering migrants help to illegally cross the border.

The Russian authorities have not said which nation the four would-be migrants were from but the Komsomolskya Pravda newspaper reported they hail from Sri Lanka and were detained when they turned up near a real border outpost.