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.