land and Norway has been the most stable and well managed of all. The Fenno-Soviet/Russian border regime has functioned flawlessly since the end of the 1950s and the numbers crossing it remain high. To the great surprise of Norway and Finland, in the autumn of 2015 Russia suddenly allowed third country nationals without proper visas to cross over, first to Norway and, as of December 2015, to Finland at two northern checkpoints. This called into question the long-established border regime while exacerbating the refugee problem. The sudden changes in the border regime look like yet another hybrid tool to convey messages. These ceased as suddenly as they began in late February 2016. A Russian-Finnish bilateral agreement was reached on 22 March 2016 to restrict, as an interim solution, the use of the two northern checkpoints to Finnish and Russian/Belarussian citizens only.
2. From non-alignment towards collective security frameworks
The end of the Cold War strengthened aspirations for a system of cooperative security. The CSCE was turned into an Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1994 with a joint value basis enshrined in the Paris Charter (1990). A comprehensive concept of security was embodied in the permanent institutions established for the organisation, such as the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the High Commissioner on National Minorities. These were meant to have some independent leeway in this strictly consensus-bound system. The OSCE was supposed to make security in Europe a common issue by preventing conflicts and establishing a permanent dialogue on issues of common interest. Its joint value basis aimed to consolidate respect for democracy and human rights in the post-Soviet states.
The vision for cooperative security, however, faded away along with the strengthened Russian assertiveness and power politics. Russia currently challenges the legitimacy of the post-Cold War international order, the governance of which (including the OSCE and the Council of Europe) it perceives as embodiments of Western hegemony. The model of international order promoted by Russia – and reflected, for instance, in the proposal by the then President Dmitry Medvedev for a new Euro-Atlantic treaty system from 2008 – is based on the balance of power between the main actors consolidating their right to spheres of interest.
