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Russia spends billions on protecting its border. So why is it so easy to break through?

Source: Kit

Russia devotes huge amounts of money to guarding its 22,000-kilometer (13,670-mile) land border. Since February 2022, Moscow has spent more than three billion rubles, the equivalent of more than $32 million, on fortifying the section of the border in the Kursk region alone. But this didn’t stop the Ukrainian Armed Forces from breaking through at least two border checkpoints on August 6, and quickly advancing tens of kilometers into Russian territory. As of August 20, Kyiv claimed to have captured more than 100 Russian settlements (though Meduza’s analysts estimate the real number somewhat lower). That said, you don’t necessarily need a tank to cross Russia’s border without permission. Over the past two years, hundreds of people have successfully fled the country through forests and fields. iStories journalist Irina Dolinina reports on the Russian border’s vulnerabilities and what’s changed since the Kremlin began its full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine. 

The following is an abridged translation of an article that first appeared in Kit, a Russian-language newsletter from the creators of Meduza. Please note that the names of some people quoted in this story were changed and sources residing in Russia were granted anonymity for safety reasons. 

Guarding the world’s biggest country

From a political point of view, the Russian border forms a strict barrier, but physically it’s rather permeable. With Russia’s maritime and land borders totaling nearly 61,000 kilometers, guarding the country’s frontiers — and ensuring that no one circumvents any of its 317 checkpoints — is notoriously difficult. 

However, there have been fewer and fewer people directly guarding the border with each passing year. Though the exact number of border guards is classified, there were around 200,000 as of 1987. In 2003, Russia decommissioned a third of its border troops, replacing them with surveillance cameras, sensors, and other new technologies. According to former FSB Border Guard Service chief Vladimir Pronichev, border guards rely on alarm systems, radar stations, and drones. “Today, border security is reminiscent of a video game,” Russian Border Service reserve colonel Sergey Banchenko said in 2022. 

According to Banchenko, one of Russia’s defense systems, known as “Rubikon,” is made up of a network of sensors located in the trace-control strip (a plowed area in the middle of the buffer zone between the borders of two countries). When a sensor detects an intruder, the system immediately sends border guards the direction, speed, and an approximate route of the person’s movements — and then a detachment is sent out to find them. (Banchenko also said the system can easily distinguish an animal from a person.) 

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According to data from Kontur-Fokus (a counterparty verification service), the biggest supplier of Rubikon is a Russian company called Polyus-ST, founded by a major general of the Internal Troops in 2006. Polyus-ST has signed government contracts valued at three billion rubles (more than $32 million) for the supply and maintenance of this and other surveillance systems since 2011 alone. In addition to the FSB Border Service, the company counts the Federal Protective Service (FSO), Interior Ministry, National Guard (Rosgvardiya), and Gazprom among its regular customers.

However, such expensive and high-tech equipment isn’t deployed all along the border. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an FSB officer told Kit that sensors and radars are installed only in areas where it’s easiest to make illegal crossings. “That’s where the systems, border guards, fences, and so on are located. But there isn’t even fencing everywhere,” he explained. Drones don’t fly along the border around the clock either, he added — they’re only launched into the air when cameras or sensors detect an intruder. 

Sometimes, intelligence officers guard certain spots on the border. At the request of border guards, they set up their own watch posts and use a variety of surveillance devices, as well as tripwire alarm traps, a former Russian Armed Forces intelligence officer told Kit. “If we see someone, we immediately take a bearing and send the information [to the border guards],” he said. 

That said, it’s simply impossible to fully monitor the entire Russian border. “Only if the entire country stands at the border and holds hands,” the former intelligence officer said sarcastically. This person claimed to have caught dozens of smugglers in his ten years of service. But when on the job, he himself would sometimes cross the border into another country accidentally, and only realize it when he received an alert from his GPS or mobile operator. 

Like a sieve

After Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, illegal border crossings spiked as Russians fled wartime political repressions and later, mobilization. The number of people Russia convicted of illegally crossing the border rose from 1,926 in 2020–2021 to 2,257 in 2022–2023. 

Be that as it may, many people have managed to flee the country illegally. The Get Lost project, for example, helps soldiers, draftees, and anyone eligible for mobilization to avoid fighting against Ukraine. Since its founding in October 2022, shortly after Russia declared a mobilization, Get Lost has provided consultations to more than 32,000 Russian citizens, around 600 of whom successfully fled the country. And the Vyvozhuk project, which mainly works with victims of political persecution and their family members, has managed to evacuate more than 126 people from Russia. 

“When I got out, the border with Ukraine was like a sieve,” said 25-year-old Sergey, who is now fighting on the Ukrainian side as part of the Russian Volunteer Corps.

After graduating from a Russian high school in 2017, Sergey was arrested by FSB agents for setting fire to a United Russia party office. Ahead of his sentencing in August 2019, he decided to try and flee the country, thinking that if he got caught, at least wouldn’t regret not trying. 

Sergey spent several months plotting his escape, using the Tor browser to look for advice in forums and analyzing the Russian border on Google Maps and Wikimapia. He memorized a route across the border with Ukraine in Russia’s western Kursk region — and started actively working out. “A lot depends on whether you’re prepared for hiking and bad weather conditions. My buddy and I were passing through when it was warm, in August, and we thought we’d get it all done quick and easy, but in the end we had to sleep in the woods: we had miscalculated the time. And if it had been winter…,” Sergey trailed off.

According to Sergey, he and his friend walked more than 60 kilometers (37 miles) in total. Upon reaching the border, they found a couple rows of old barbed wire, cut through the top of it, and climbed over. Sergey said he wasn’t particularly afraid of getting caught. “It’s impossible to guard every hundred meters of the Russian border. We simply looked at the map to see whether there were any well-worn roads running from the border to the checkpoint and, if there were, how far they went. And this way you can more or less calculate the travel time from one point to another,” he explained. 

Anton Gorbatsevich, Get Lost’s direct assistance and evacuation coordinator, confirmed that calculating the time it takes border guards to get to your hypothetical crossing point is key: those who choose to cross as far away from roads and settlements as possible are most likely to succeed. In his experience, it’s very likely that cameras, photo traps, or sensors will capture the crossing. But with the right timing, Russian border guards will only have enough time to alert their counterparts in the country the person crossed into. 

After crossing the border, Gorbatsevich said, it’s important to present yourself to border guards with your hands raised and to loudly ask for political asylum. The 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention asserts that a refugee shouldn’t be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom. However, Estonia and Latvia have officially stated they won’t grant asylum to Russians fleeing mobilization. And in July 2024, the Finnish parliament allowed border guards to return asylum seekers who had illegally crossed the border from Russia. 

Finland used to have a different attitude towards fleeing Russians. “Finnish border guards must have a cool photo of me [getting] detained. I was all covered in ice, wearing camouflage, and my beard was also frozen,” said Valery, 27. 

Valery joined the Russian army in 2014 and deserted in September 2022, after he was injured fighting in Ukraine. He then spent a year and a half in hiding in Russia. He decided to flee to Finland in February 2024, inspired by the story of two men from the Russian Far East who fled across the Bering Strait by boat to avoid mobilization. 

After consulting with the Get Lost project, Valery found a route out of Russia using SAS.Planet (a program similar to Google Maps) and carefully began gathering the necessary equipment, including winter camping gear, a GPS, and a white camouflage suit. He also spent a lot of time reading local hunting and fishing forums, to find out when water bodies freeze in the winter.

Valery walked across frozen lakes, through forests, and over hills. “Despite all precautions, my water froze and the snow didn’t really help quench my thirst. I was dehydrated, exhausted, and I couldn’t feel my feet,” he recalled. About a kilometer from the border, Valery came across a barbed-wire fence about 1.5 meters high (almost five feet) and managed to climb over it. He walked another five kilometers (three miles) before the Finnish border guards finally found him. 

“I immediately asked for asylum [and] they gave me first aid. My feet were frostbitten. After a few minutes an ambulance came and took me to the hospital, where they ultimately decided not to amputate my toes,” he said. 

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Not everyone who escapes Russia illegally has to hike through fields and break through barbed wire. “The majority of our charges don’t go through the forest. We simply take advantage of the imperfections and inconsistencies in the border guards’ database. We actually look for holes within the existing borders,” Gorbatsevich explained.

Others turn to services on the darknet. The asking price for “help crossing the Russian border into Europe” on darknet forums starts at 160,000 rubles ($1,750), whereas help lifting a travel ban supposedly costs 18,000 rubles (around $200). However, there’s no guarantee that the buyer won’t get scammed. 

People fleeing Russia and Belarus also use private carriers to bypass checkpoints. Since February 2022, the price of these one-way tickets has increased two- to three-fold. According to a Kit source familiar with this market, prices range from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles a seat (about $325 to $550). 

Minefields, dragon’s teeth, and contraband 

“Before the war, the border with Ukraine was generally just a road. That is, before the road was Russia and after it was Ukraine,” recalls the former commander of Russian Armed Forces reconnaissance groups. 

Needless to say, Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine led to some drastic changes along the border. Sergey, who took part in several Russian Volunteer Corps raids on Russian territory in 2023, described the border with Ukraine as unrecognizable. The place where he crossed in 2021, for example, is now riddled with fragmentation mines, he said. 

These same mines blow up residents of Russia’s border areas regularly. According to the anonymous FSB officer, Russia’s border with Ukraine is much more dangerous than it used to be. “Some areas simply weren’t paid attention to before, but the war revealed many vulnerabilities,” he explained. 

But as the former Russian military intelligence officer pointed out, chaotically scattering mines and beefing up security — mainly with conscripts and volunteer patrols — didn’t stop regular Ukrainian troops from launching an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region. “In essence, our border was simply squandered — just like the money allegedly allocated for reinforcing it,” he said. “Without soldiers and equipment on the border, it was impossible to hold back an advance with dragon’s teeth and dug trenches.” 

Thus, in wartime, the front line — with its trenches and fortifications — becomes the de facto border between the two countries. By comparison, state borders not manned by troops are relatively easy for whole assault battalions to cross. 

And they aren’t the only ones getting through. Some residents of border villages play an active role in helping those trying to flee Russia. Gorbatsevich from Get Lost called these volunteers “tourists.” Before the war, he explained, they explored local trails, “paying no mind to state borders” — “and after February 2022 they realized they could be useful.” Some of them drive people as far as the border, while others guide defectors along the trails themselves.

Then there’s the thriving cross-border flow of contraband. As expert Mark Galeotti writes, with Russia now the most sanctioned country on earth, it’s no surprise that smuggling has flourished over the last two years. The full-scale war has also led smugglers to change their routes, opting to go through Georgia rather than Ukraine, said a Kit source familiar with trade on the black market. New schemes for illegally transporting goods are also cropping up in the Baltic countries, which are heavily dependent on Russian imports and exports. 

According to Galeotti, organized crime networks have smuggled hundreds of millions of dollars worth of luxury goods into Russia, ranging from top-shelf champagne and designer handbags to luxury cars. Business Insider also reported that Belarus is the most important transit point for moving luxury contraband from Western Europe to Russia.

Often, these goods are slipping in not through forests and fields but through official Russian checkpoints. And despite the fact that Russia legalized “parallel imports,” importing banned goods is still smuggling. Moreover, as Galeotti pointed out, by encouraging importers to smuggle sanctioned goods like microchips, the Russian government is also turning a blind eye to drug and human trafficking. 

The flow of contraband out of Russia has also increased. Russian regions bordering Ukraine are drowning in military-grade weapons, which are illegally “exported” from the front and then shipped to Europe for sale on the black market. 

The smuggling of huge quantities of scrap metal from Donbas, which began back in 2015, also continues apace, a Russian soldier told Kit on condition of anonymity. According to the soldier, Russian troops send whatever scrap they can get their hands on to Russia, even train tracks. One of these sales trips can net a soldier around four million rubles (about $44,000), three million of which goes to their commander. But the money isn’t his comrades’ main motivation, the soldier said — those who smuggle scrap metal avoid fighting on the front line.

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The Russian authorities admit that they can’t control the border without the help of the local population. In 2022, the government allocated nearly 90 million rubles (equivalent to more than $983,000 today) to fund “people’s guards” in the Belgorod region. The money was supposed to go towards protective equipment and salaries, but the patrollers earn only 150 rubles ($1.65) per hour — and they aren’t always paid regularly. By all appearances, the holes in the Russian border won’t be plugged any time soon.