Finland drastically cuts tourist visas for Russians
Finland has reduced the number of visas granted to Russian citizens to one-tenth of the usual number as a show of solidarity towards Ukraine.
Finland, which has the longest border with Russia among European Union member states, announced its decision in August due to increased pressure from politicians and ordinary citizens to limit the movement of Russian tourists through the Nordic countries as Moscow continues its war in Ukraine.
“It is important that we show that while Ukrainians are suffering, normal tourism should not continue as normal,” Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Czech capital, Prague, on Wednesday.
From September 1, Finland allows Russians to apply for tourist visas only once a week and only in four Russian cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Murmansk and Petrozavodsk near the Finnish border.
Haavisto said he was particularly concerned about a kind of Russian “tourist route” through Helsinki Airport that thousands of Russians had used before Moscow’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine.
In addition to the visa decision, the Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the government is investigating the possibility of helping Russian human rights activists, members of civil society and journalists critical of the Kremlin by establishing a new type of humanitarian visa that allows access to the Nordic countries.
At this week’s meeting in Prague, EU foreign ministers decided to tighten travel rules for Russians within the 27-member bloc, but failed to agree on granting a full-scale tourist visa ban, which Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia have demanded. Latvia and Lithuania.
Moscow described the EU’s decision to abandon the simplified visa system for Russian tourists as absurd and bad news for Russian citizens.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia was considering options to respond to the move.
“It’s a new, ridiculous decision in the ongoing absurdity,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters, as quoted by news outlets.
Finland shares an 830-mile (1,340-kilometer) border with Russia, and the country regularly ranks as one of the most popular Western destinations or stopovers for Russian travelers.