“Since the lifting of anti-COVID travel restrictions, the number of border crossings from Russia to Finland has increased by 10-30% compared to spring and early summer. However, if the majority of Russians travel to other countries on a Finnish Schengen visa, the Finnish Foreign Ministry will have to intervene,” Jussi Tanner, head of the consular service of the Finnish Foreign Ministry, told Yle television.
According to Tanner, if a person primarily uses a Finnish visa to visit other countries, Helsinki may stop it. “Information about visa abuse is spreading rapidly across Schengen countries,” the official said.
A Russian citizen’s application for a new Finnish visa may be rejected if the previous visa was used only for transit.
Tanner added that the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs will tighten up the visa issuance procedure after talks with the government. It’s unclear exactly when that will happen, but “the number of visas issued may decrease in the near future.”
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He also added that the ministry limits the possibility of making appointments with consulates and may extend the processing time of visa applications from Russians.
prime ministerial position
Prime Minister Sanna Marin also called for limiting the issuance of Finnish visas to Russians. At the same time, he noted that Helsinki does not have the means to restrict the travel of Russians to EU countries.
“We do not have our own enforcement legislation that would allow us to limit such actions by Russian tourists. Maybe there are other ways, for example we can slow down the issuance of visas. That is, to actually restrict entry, even though it is officially open,” he said.
The Prime Minister emphasized that the Russians used Finland as a transit point and then went on vacation to other European countries.
How exactly can Finland restrict the issuance of visas to Russians?
On July 28, Yle reported, citing Jussi Tanner, that Finland was considering six options for possibly limiting the flow of tourists from Russia amid hostilities in Ukraine.
The first option involves a complete cessation of issuing visas for Russian travelers from Helsinki. However, this option is against both the European Union and the Schengen Agreement.
The second option is to minimize the number of accepted visa applications. This is relatively easy to implement, but around 100,000 Russians have obtained tourist visas from their Finnish consulate. This is why Tanner argued that its effectiveness is in question.
The third option is to allow entry into the country only for humanitarian reasons, for example for the funeral of relatives. The fourth option is the cancellation of visas issued to Russians. However, this would be a violation of EU and Finnish law. The fifth option is to close the border for passenger traffic. But this can cause dissatisfaction among the Finns themselves.
The sixth option is to follow the common EU policy, where the Finnish authorities should raise the issue of issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens for the entire European discussion.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned
The termination of the issuance of Schengen visas to Russian citizens should not be excluded from possible scenarios, Ivan Volynkin, director of the consular office of the Russian Foreign Ministry, told TASS on July 26.
“The Ministry is carefully recording calls from Europe to stop issuing Schengen visas to Russians. Most of these statements are made by obnoxious politicians or public figures – Russophobes, and we perceive them accordingly,” he said.
“Even seemingly impossible scenarios cannot be ruled out in the event of a radical deterioration of consular ties with the rest of the Schengen member states,” Volynkin said.
According to him, Moscow continues to advocate the preservation of the possibility of mutual travel of citizens of the Russian Federation and Europe, and hopes for the pragmatism and common sense of the European Union. At the same time, the diplomat noted that if we “imagine the complete cessation of the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians as a reality”, Russia can count on establishing visa cooperation with these European countries on a bilateral basis. can “negotiate”.
Source: Gazeta
Barbara Dickson is a seasoned writer for “Social Bites”. She keeps readers informed on the latest news and trends, providing in-depth coverage and analysis on a variety of topics.