Finland restricts visas to Russians as border traffic remains high

The President and the Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy on Friday decided that the government would issue a resolution placing significant restrictions on the issuing of visas to Russian citizens, said a government press release.

Restrictions will be also imposed on their entry into the country in order to prevent serious damage to Finland’s international position, the press release added.

Meanwhile, border traffic at Finnish Russian land border remained at higher level than usual on Thursday, according to Finnish Border Guard.

“Border traffic has stayed on higher level at Finnish Russian land border, particularly at South-East Finland, which is close to St. Petersburg, Russia. Further north, North Karelia, Kainuu and Lapland, traffic is more normal,” Head of Int Affairs Unit at Finnish Border Guard Matti Pitkäniitty wrote in his twitter on Friday.

Although Finland decided to restrict the entry of Russian citizens, on the basis that their free tourism in this situation is a threat to Finland´s international relations.

“Most likely there will be exceptions who can travel, so it’s not a complete closure,” Pitkäniitty wrote.

He said that 6 470 Russians entered to Finland via Finnish-Russian land border on Thursday while 3 227 exited.

“Number corresponds to weekend traffic. In August and September we have had around 6 000 arriving to Finland on Saturdays,” Pitkäniitty added.

Earlier in August Finland decided to accept only about 100 applications for tourist visas from Russian citizens per week.