Finland is closing its border to Russian tourists following Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilisation order which prompted large numbers of people to flee the country.
From midnight Finnish time (9pm GMT), Russian tourists holding an EU Schengen visa will be turned away unless they have a family tie or compelling reason to stay.
Matti Pitkäniitty, head of the international affairs unit at the Finnish border guard, said each passenger seeking to enter Finland from Russia would be checked: “Why are you entering Finland? Do you have some kind of valid reason: family members? study? Some business that must be handled at the moment… And if not, then the entry is refused.”
Entry will also be permitted for humanitarian reasons, such as patients with an established relationship with Finnish doctors.
In an interview with the Guardian, he said the restrictions were necessary because entry for Russians with Schengen visas was harming Finland’s international reputation and undermining its support for
Ukraine.
In this situation where we have Russia attacking Ukraine and Ukrainians don’t have a possibility to go abroad and have a nice meal and enjoy life. So the big dilemma is why can Russians [do this]?
For at least two decades, middle-class Russians from St Petersburg have been frequent travellers to Finland, using fast roads to go shopping and enjoy other leisure. Since the invasion of Ukraine and subsequent EU ban on flights to and from Russia, Russians also use Finland as a transit country to reach other European destinations.
Russians will be allowed to claim asylum in Finland, a process that may require them to stay in Finnish-state accommodation and restrict their freedom of movement, Pitkäniitty said.
In a question and answer document about the scheme, the Finnish government acknowledged that “it will become more difficult for people” seeking asylum and said it was studying the introduction of a humanitarian visa.
Under EU law, the Finnish government can prevent entry to non-EU citizens if it perceives “a threat to international relations”.
“The government has concluded that tourism from Russia to Finland is a threat to Finland’s international relations,” states a government document.
Separately Finnish authorities announced this week they are moving ahead with plans to build a border fence along the southern parts of its 1,340 km border with Russia. Pitkäniitty said the fence - likely to be constructed from metal, topped with barbed wire and lined with surveillance equipment - would be built along 130km-260km of the shared border.
The plans,
agreed in July, predate the Russian mobilisation and were a response to growing “instrumentalisation of migration” he said.
Finnish officials believe their fenceless border is a vulnerability, after observing how
Belarus’s authoritarian government lured migrants from the Middle East to EU borders in Poland and Lithuania, in apparent retaliation against EU sanctions against Minsk. “The fact that we don’t have any fencing at the border may become a pull factor,” Pitkäniitty said.
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. Väärään aikaan on vihreiden edustaja pallilla. Nyt pitäisi olla jämäkkä ei riitä kosteikkoviljely ja liito-orava tuhtaaminen.
