Porsches and Bentleys fill Helsinki Airport as Russian tourists head to Europe | Finland
Porsches, Bentleys and other luxury cars with Russian license plates fill the Helsinki-Vantaa parking garage Finland it will become an important transit country for Russian tourists flying to Europe.
The EU closed its airspace to Russian aircraft after the attack on Moscow Ukrainewhich forces all travelers to Europe to drive across the border or take a detour using non-Western airlines.
Since Russia’s Covid-19 restrictions were lifted in July, the number of Russian travelers has increased and the backlash has increased. in Europe bans Russian tourists from entering while the war continues.
A quick walk through the Helsinki-Vantaa parking lot revealed dozens if not hundreds of high-end cars with Russian plates, including the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class sedan and the Porsche 911 Turbo S.
“It confuses me,” Finnish tourist Jussi Hirvonen said after leaving the garage. “I hope they won’t be here until the situation in Ukraine is resolved.”
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said that Finland has become a “transit country” for Russian tourists. “Helsinki Airport currently has a lot of Russian tourism,” he added.
Finland announced last week that it will limit the number of Russian tourist visas to 10 percent of the current number starting September 1, as dissatisfaction with Russian tourism grows amid the war in Ukraine.
Russians still travel to Finland with visas issued by other EU countries in the Schengen borderless travel area. “They come here with Schengen visas issued by different countries and then continue through Helsinki airport,” Haavisto said.
According to a survey conducted by the Finnish Border Guard in August, about two-thirds of Russians crossing Finland’s eastern border do so with a Schengen visa issued by a country other than Finland.
“Hungary, Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece and Spain usually issue visas to Russians, and they usually have the largest number of visas each year,” said Mert Şaşıoğlu, a border guard official. Many eastern EU countries stopped issuing tourist visas to Russians shortly after the February 24 attack, but Russians with visas issued by other EU countries can enter all EU countries.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on Tuesday it could seek a “regional solution” to ban Russian tourists if EU member states fail to agree on a bloc-wide sanction, and expected to hold talks next week with Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Poland. In connection with the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague.
“We are primarily looking for a European solution because it is the most sustainable and legally correct,” Landsbergis told reporters in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius.
“If we do not reach one, we do not rule out the possibility of looking for a regional solution that would include the Baltic countries, Poland and possibly Finland as well,” he added, admitting, however, that such a move would be “difficult.”
According to Haavisto, the Schengen rules do not allow Finland to close the border to certain nationalities, because only the EU can decide on such sanctions together.
“Since Finland and the Baltic countries are planning to limit these visas, it would be good if all EU countries made similar decisions,” he added.
Many Finns agreed at the airport. “An EU decision should be made to close the border,” said one passenger, Jussi Hirvonen.
The Nordic country plans to raise the issue at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Czech Republic on August 30.