The case concerned an appeal brought by the applicant and his partner, both Finnish citizens, against the Government Council decisions in the General Sessions of 16, 22 and 28 November 2023 when it was decided to temporarily close the eastern border with Russia. The decisions were taken consecutively and based on the Border Guard Act, on temporary closure of the border crossing points on the land border between Finland and Russia. The applicants are citizens of Finland or holding a residence permit and belonging to the Finish Russian speaking minority or had a Russian background. The applicants claimed that although the contested decision seemed to prevent the unwanted arrival of asylum applicants, it actually affected everyone, including the applicants as citizens of Finland. The applicants also claimed that when adopting the contested decision, the State Council did not investigate on whether the access of asylum seekers to contact the Finnish border authorities could be prevented by such actions, and to adopt measure with a milder interference with the rights of Finnish citizens, such as, for example, the opening of a train route intended only for Finnish citizens.

The Supreme Administrative Court rejected the request and considered that the applicants did not have the right to appeal. It stated that the decisions of the general session of the Government had not been specifically targeted at any of the applicants, and their right to appeal had not been specifically provided for in the law either. Based on the general right of appeal provision of the Law on Litigation in Administrative Matters, the applicants had the right to appeal the decisions in question only if these decisions affected their right, obligation or interest immediately.

The court stated that although the temporary closure of the land border crossings between Finland and Russia had a restrictive or harmful effect on the applicants' exercise of their freedom of movement and some other basic rights, not all border crossings in Finland were closed. As such, it did not result from the contested decisions that traveling from Finland to Russia or from Russia to Finland would not have been possible at all.