The country’s foreign minister announced that Finland will prepare a “national solution” to limit or even completely block the passage of “Russian tourists” to its territory.
The traffic of vehicles arriving in the east Finland’s border with Russia increased overnight, the Finnish border guard announced early this morning, adding however that the situation was under control.
Finland is closely monitoring the situation in neighboring Russia following the announcement by the Russian president Vladimir Putin partial recruitment of reservessaid yesterday, Thursday, the Minister of Defense of the country Andi Kaikkonen.
However, the number of people crossing the border yesterday was lower than at the weekend, the head of international affairs at the Finnish border guard, Matti Pitkaniitti, said.
#Breaking: just in – The traffic jam at the border with #Russia/#Finland has pilled up to 35KM and is rising by the hour, it is the only border who is still open for Russian civilians with Schengen visas, after #Putin announced he will send 300,000 new troops to #Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/EOJ1346qDO
— Sotiri Dimpinoudis (@sotiridi) September 21, 2022
In total 4,824 Russians arrived in Finland across the eastern border yesterday, up from 3,133 a week ago.
The border guard is on standby at nine checkpoints, he also noted in the statements he made to Reuters.
Last night the Finnish border guard announced that border traffic was “normal” after Putin announced the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists to reinforce Russian forces in Ukraine.
The situation “has not changed significantly,” she said in a message on Twitter, denying rumors circulating online of long queues stretching several kilometers.
The country’s foreign minister also announced yesterday that Finland to prepare a “national solution” to limit or even completely block the passage of “Russian tourists” on its territory.
The country, which faced several controversial crossings of Russians over the summer, already this month cut the number of entry visas it grants to Russians by a tenth in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But today it is the only EU member state bordering Russia that allows Russian citizens holding Schengen visas to cross its borders, after Poland and the three Baltic states decided earlier this month to block the entry of large part of Russian citizens.
Wanting to harden its line as well, the Finnish government “decided to prepare a national solution (…) on how to limit orcompletely block this tourist movement” of Russiansaccording to the statements made last night by Foreign Minister Peka Haavisto.
These measures “could include new legislation, which will be adopted very quickly, or an interpretation of existing legislation,” he explained.
“Finland no longer wants to be a transit country for (those with) a Schengen visa issued by other countries. We want to put this kind of transit under control from now on,” he added.
Helsinki is asking for a common European decision on this issue, but “it cannot be certain that it will come quickly”, concluded the Finnish foreign minister.
According to a poll published by Ilta-Sanomat newspaper yesterday, around 70% of Finns want to see an end to the granting of tourist visas to Russians
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