According to the news of the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, tens of Finns have not been allowed to enter the Russian Federation through the Torfyanovka-Vaalimaa and Brusnichnoye-Nuyamaa border gates since 11 May. Often Finns living near the border go to Russia for gas stations and shops.
A resident of the Kymenlaakso area told reporters that he went to Vyborg on the morning of May 12 to refuel and buy something at a store. Russian border guards asked him for documents and then gave him the questionnaires. In it, Finn had to indicate his address, phone number and destination in the Russian Federation.
The man also had to write down who had issued him a Russian visa. He stated that he got it from the Finnish visa company. At the same time, due to ignorance of the Russian language, he could not correctly spell the name of the inviting party – the Moscow company.
“I couldn’t spell the inviter’s name correctly because I don’t know the Russian language,” Finn said.
As a result, his passport was returned to him, but the visa in him was canceled by the border control of the Leningrad region of the FSB. Before that, Finn was in Russia literally the day before – and everything went smoothly.
A similar situation occurred at the Torfyanovka-Vaalimaa border crossing. Three Finnish citizens returned with their visas revoked. At the same time, an Estonian crossing the border there, St. He managed to cross the border, saying that he was going to the dentist in St. Petersburg. Persons with dual citizenship also crossed the Russian border without any problems. According to an HS article, at the Brusnichnoye-Nuijamaa border crossing point, the FSB border guards did not revoke another Finn’s visa, but forced him to sign a document banning him from entering Russia.
“We noticed that some people have returned from Russia, but we are not collecting information about why the people’s travel failed,” Jukka Lukkari, deputy border guard of southeastern Finland, told reporters.
According to the article, Finns often traveled to Russia for local business using work visas. The Russian Federation has granted Finns single-entry tourist visas, and a trip to a gas station or a store does not “do not count as a business trip”, which is the basis for crossing the border on a business visa. But HS writes that until recently, Russian border guards “looked through their fingers” at such short trips.
The End of Allegro
After the imposition of EU sanctions on the Russian Federation against the backdrop of the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, Russia-Finland border relations have become more complex. In March 2022, the Finnish side, St. Allegro, which runs on the St. Petersburg-Helsinki route, canceled its high-speed trains. In August, it was learned that Finnish state railway operator VR had deleted all the wagons of Allegro trains.
“The group has canceled all Allegro-related rolling stock and spare parts for a total of 45.4 million euros,” the company said in a statement.
The train arrives at St. Petersburg to Helsinki or back.
The Moscow Arbitration Court ordered the Finnish VR Group and the train owner Allegro to continue to fulfill their obligations under agreements on the organization of rail communication between Finland and Russia. The lawsuit was filed by Russian Railways – Russian Railways. The court also awarded a court sentence of about 10.1 million rubles in favor of Russian Railways. The Russian side also stopped sending goods to Finland, after the imposition of sanctions, due to the impossibility of their acceptance by Finnish customs.
Smugglers and spies
In March 2023, Finnish customs reported that EU sanctions against Russia and Belarus had significantly increased the number of customs offenses on the Russian-Finnish border in 2022.
“The massive increase in regulatory crime is one of the most significant changes that has occurred in the past year,” the report said.
It was noted that the number of crimes resulting from the sanctions, about which a preliminary investigation was carried out, exceeded 300. At the same time, only a few cases per year were previously recorded. The Customs Administration noted that it detected 6,482 crimes in 2022, an increase of 1,000 compared to a year ago.
In addition, the Finnish Security Police (Supo) presented a report on the security situation in the country on March 30, 2023, noting that last year the number of Russian intelligence officers was halved.
“Last year, the Russian reconnaissance post was reduced to about half its previous size,” said Supo chief Antti Pelttari in the report.
According to a press release, the deportation of Russian intelligence officers and the denial of visas contributed to the reduction of the “Russian spy network”. Supo claims that the main tool of Russian intelligence is operations under diplomatic cover.
Winding road through consulates and Norway
Against this background, Finland began to close its consulates in Russia. The consulate in Petrozavodsk was temporarily closed because “the number of tasks performed was significantly reduced”, including the number of visa jobs. In January, the consulate in Murmansk was temporarily closed for a similar reason.
Since September 30 last year, Russians cannot enter Finland as tourists – but it is possible to cross the border with other types of visas. At the same time, in February, Yle reported that Finnish customs and border authorities were unable to stop the flow of shopping tourists from Russia to Finland.
Despite the ban on entry from the Russian Federation to Finland for tourism purposes, Russian tourists choose a longer but strictly legal route to go to shops in Finland – they cross the Russia-Norway border on a Schengen visa, since Norway does not impose additional bans. For Russian travelers. On the way back, tourists return by a short road – crossing the border of Finland and Russia.