Finland's Defense Ministry said on October 19 that it had blocked three planned property transactions involving Russian buyers on grounds that allowing the acquisitions to take place could hamper the defense of Finnish territory.
"The real estate acquisitions in question can be considered to hinder the organization of national defense or the surveillance and safeguarding of territorial integrity," the ministry said in a statement.
The decision concerns two properties in Ruokolahti and one in Kitee, the Defense Ministry said, both near the Russian border in southern Finland, RFE/RL reports.
