A foreigner posted a photo from the Finnish-Russian border that made people rub their eyes

A participant in the Imatra Races posed on the Russian side.

Northern Irishman Adam McLean, who was racing in the SBK class at the Imatranajjo motorsports event held in Imatra last week, posted a photo on his Instagram stories that has caused confusion.

In the picture, McLean appears to be on the Finnish-Russian border, leaning against a green-red-striped marker post on the Russian side of the border.

– A day trip to Russia, McLean wrote freely in Finnish.

The original text was in the form ”Just a day trip to Russia!”.

Just a day trip to Russia!

McLean has since deleted the story from his Instagram.

Border Guard investigation

On Monday, Iltalehti sent the Finnish Border Guard (RVL) a screenshot of McLean’s Instagram story and asked whether he had committed a state border crime.

The Border Guard responded in general terms that it has opened a preliminary investigation into a suspected state border crime this past week.

The Southeastern Finnish Border Guard told Iltalehti that the suspect is a Northern Irish man and that the suspected state border crime occurred in the Karhusuo area of Imatra.

Iltalehti reported on the suspected state border crime on Monday, July 7.

RVL will not comment further on the matter until the investigation is completed.

Yle, among others, has previously reported that people often get caught taking a quick picture on the other side of the border.

“Unauthorized crossing of the national border is usually investigated as a state border crime, for which the maximum penalty is one year in prison. Usually the penalty is daily fines or conditional imprisonment,” Major Kimmo Gromoff, Director General of the Southeast Finland Border Guard, told Yle in 2022.