From September 1, Finland will only allow Russians to apply for tourist visas from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk and Petrozavodsk.
From September 1, Finland will only allow Russians to apply for tourist visas from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk and Petrozavodsk.
Finland on Thursday reduced the number of visas issued to Russian citizens by a tenth of the regular amount in a move seen as a show of solidarity with Ukraine.
Finland, which shares the longest border with Russia of all EU member states, announced the decision in August, amid mounting pressure from politicians and ordinary citizens to restrict the movement of Russian tourists through the Nordic country. Because Moscow continues its war in Ukraine.
“It is important that we show that at the same time as Ukrainians are suffering, normal tourism should not continue as business as usual,” Foreign Minister Pekka Havisto said during a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Czech capital Prague on Wednesday.
Finland will only allow Russians to apply for tourist visas once a week and only in four Russian cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk and Petrozavodsk, close to the Finnish border, until September 1.
Havisto said he was particularly concerned about a kind of Russian “tourist route” through Helsinki airport, which was used by thousands of Russians before Moscow’s February 24 attack on Ukraine.
On top of its visa decision, the Finnish Foreign Ministry said that the government is currently exploring the possibility of helping Russian human rights defenders, members of civil society and journalists critical of the Kremlin, by enabling them to access the Nordic A new type of humanitarian visa could be established. Country.
At this week’s Prague meeting, EU foreign ministers decided to tighten travel rules for Russians within the 27-member bloc, but no consensus was reached to issue a full-scale tourist visa ban, something that It has been urged by the Baltic countries of Poland and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Finland shares a 1,340-kilometre (830 mi) border with Russia and the country is regularly ranked as one of the most popular western travel destinations or stopovers for Russian tourists.