ST. PETERSBURG, December 3. /TASS/. A resident of a Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) country installed fake border posts in a forest in Russia’s Leningrad Region near the Finnish border to deceive a group of four foreign nationals and make them believe that he planned to help them illegally cross the border and get to the European Union, the Border Department of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region said in a statement.

The FSB pointed out that the four foreigners, hailing from South Asia, had arrived in St. Petersburg in late November, intending to enter Finland illegally. They found a guide who agreed to help them cross the Russian-Finnish border in a wooded area in return for over 10,000 euro. "The so-called guide decided to simulate an illicit border crossing and make some easy money without actually providing the four with assistance in illegally crossing the Russian border. The fraudster really got into the character for his role, going as far as making and installing fake border posts in a forest," the statement reads.

The guide then brought the foreigners to the Leningrad Region’s Vyborg District and to add to the dramatics of the situation, took them through a forest to the fake border, where all five were detained by Russian border guards.

According to the FSB, a court has found the four foreign nationals, who failed to cross the border, guilty of violating the rules of stay in Russia, ordering they be fined and deported from Russia. As for their fake guide, law enforcement agencies are considering the possibility of opening a criminal case under Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code (fraud).