The Finnish government decided on Wednesday to implement a plan to prevent Russians from entering the country. Details of the plan are expected to be presented to the Finnish parliament on Thursday.
Russian tourist visas have been a subject of debate in the country for several months. The announcement comes on the same day that Vladimir Putin announced a partial military mobilization in the war in Ukraine.
Traffic doubled overnight
According to the leading Finnish newspaper Iltalehti, which continuously covers the situation at the borderon Thursday morning the queues to cross the border stations of Vaalimaa, Imatra and Nuiyamaa were up to 150 meters long.
Desperate
On Thursday afternoon, the newspaper reported that several people are now being freshened up with fake travel documents on their way to the Russian side, desperate to leave the country.
– The restlessness on the other side of the border is very great, says Sirri Rimppi, a journalist from Iltalehti, to his newspaper.
– An inexpensive way to get stronger
Despite severe economic sanctions and broken contacts between Russia and most Western countries, Russian citizens can still apply for tourist visas in countries that have signed the Schengen agreement.
The visa for the Schengen countries is common, and is issued for the whole area.
At the same time, several countries have decided to refuse entry to Russian citizens with a tourist visa.
Visumnekt
Russia has five neighboring countries in the EU. Four of these, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, which border the Kaliningrad exclave, have decided to refuse visas to Russian citizens.
Putin’s speech: – Partial mobilization
Finland is the only one of Russia’s neighbors in the EU that has not yet done so.
Details of the Finns’ new plan to restrict tourist visas for Russians are expected to be presented on Thursday.
At a press conference in New York on Wednesday, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Finland will not become a transit country for Russians wanting to travel to the rest of Europe.
Disappointed
He also expressed disappointment at the EU’s handling of the visa issue. Finland asked the European Commission on Monday to introduce EU-wide rules limiting the entry possibilities for Russians on tourist visas.
– There is no moral or ethical justification for allowing Russian tourism to continue normally, he said, according to the Finn national broadcaster YLE.
The concrete content of the Finnish national plan to restrict entry visas is expected to be presented to the Finnish parliament on Thursday.
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