Moayad Salami left his home in Homs, Syria, on 5 November, flying first to Moscow and then travelling on to the city of Kazan in southwest Russia, where he spent ten days with relatives.
After that, he began his journey towards Finland.
Salami next flew to St Petersburg, as the smuggler had instructed him to do, with the added note that the smugglers will take care of everything once the would-be migrants arrive in the port city.
Salami told Yle that he found a smuggler via the messaging service Telegram, where the marketing of trips to the Finnish border has intensified recently, he added.
"Smugglers are inviting everyone to come. The word is out that the way is now open," he said.
Yandex taxi to the border
Once he arrived in St Petersburg, the smuggler told Salami that his onward journey to the Finnish border had been arranged with the army.
Yle has not been able to independently verify all of the details of Salami's trip. For example, it is not clear which authority or authorities — the army, police or border guards — are assisting the migrants in their journeys to the Finnish border.
In St Petersburg, Salami said he and five other migrants were taken to a hostel, where they spent one night.
The following day, two Yandex taxis arrived at the hostel and took the group of six to a Russian border guard station near the Finnish border. The taxi cost 100 dollars, Salami recalled.
The migrants were sold bicycles at the station for 300 dollars. Their belongings were also searched, and their passports and phones were temporarily confiscated so that they would not be able to take any photos.
They were then left to wait outside in the cold for 7-8 hours, Salami said.
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Banned from returning to Russia
Next, Salami said the group got into a car, which he recalled was a Volvo, and they were driven to a second Russian border station — this one closer again to the Finnish border.
The groups' newly-bought bikes followed in a trailer.
At this second border station, the group were first fingerprinted and their visas to stay or live in Russia were revoked. At this point, their passports and phones were returned.
They were then instructed to cycle to the Finnish border, and were informed that they would no longer be allowed to return to Russia.
As they cycled, a Russian police car followed them until they were less than one kilometre from the Finnish border.
Salami reached and crossed the border into Finland via the Vaalimaa checkpoint in the southeast of the country on Wednesday 15 November, just a couple of days before the checkpoint was closed.
He is currently at the Joutseno reception centre waiting for his asylum application to be processed.
Salami added that he knows from social media groups that there are currently many migrants in Russia who have tried unsuccessfully to get from Belarus to Latvia, Lithuania or Poland.
"The topic is being discussed on Telegram, Facebook and elsewhere on social media. There is now a huge amount of talk about which Finnish border posts are closed and which are still open," he said.
The Russians "told us to lie"
Rayan Alhariri also told Yle that there are many migrants in Belarus who may be travelling to Finland.
He himself was first in Belarus and tried several times to get into Poland and Latvia, without success.
"But then we heard on Telegram that the Finnish border is open for people coming from Belarus," Alhariri said.
Alhariri's journey to the Finnish border was similar to Salami's, beginning in St Petersburg, involving a taxi trip to a Russian border station, where his passport was also confiscated.
Next, he recalled, a "Russian army car" took the group he was with "to a police station somewhere in the middle of the forest".
Once there, the Russian authorities took what they could find from each person: Alhariri said 300 dollars was taken from him, while 400-800 dollars was taken from others, depending on how much money they each had.
In return, they received bicycles, although Alhariri said the bikes were worthless.
"The [Russian] authorities told us to tell the Finns that the bikes did not come from them, but from the Polish authorities," he explained.
This week's All Points North podcast asks why Finland has struggled to close the border, and what its obligations are to those seeking asylum. Listen to the episode via this embedded player, on Yle Areena, Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
"They were very cooperative"
Alhariri crossed the Vaalimaa border checkpoint on Friday 17 November, just a few hours before it closed.
During his interview with Yle, Alhariri was informed that Finland has closed seven of the eight checkpoints on its border with Russia due to what is seen as an attempt at hybrid influencing by Russia.
"I did notice that they were very cooperative," he said, referring to the Russian authorities.
As an example, he noted that some of his friends' Russian visas had already expired when they returned from Belarus.
"Yet they let my friend into Russia and then to the Finnish border. That tells you something," he said.
Long detention
Kamal Tawil's experience with the Russian authorities was very similar to that of Salami and Alhariri.
"At the Russian checkpoints, the authorities took our papers, even though they were in order. We were detained for a very long time," he said.
Neither Tawil nor the group he was with were told the reason for the length of their detention.
Tawil told Yle that without a bike, the Russians would not have let him travel to the Finnish border checkpoint. Once he bought the bike, the authorities "rushed" him to the border, he said.
They also banned any of the migrants from returning to Russia.
"It was like a condition for us to get out of there," he said.
Putting pressure on the EU
Moayad Salami said he knows that Finland has closed part of its border because of Russia's hybrid operation.
Russia seems to be trying to fill Finland with asylum seekers, he said.
"The main reason is probably that Finland joined Nato," Salami noted, adding that both Finland "and the EU countries are supporting Ukraine."
Salami also recalled that he was told at a Russian border station that if the Finnish border closes, Russia will send refugees to Norway, Estonia or Lithuania.
"Any border, as long as the EU is put under pressure. That's what they said everywhere. It is politics, and we are being used as pawns," he said.
Yle also asked Salami what he thinks would happen if Finland closed the entire eastern border.
"There will certainly be attempts to force a way past the crossing points. I've heard from some migrants that the Russians say you have the right to claim asylum, so cross the border even if you have to storm it," he replied.
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