Finland considers banning tourist visas for Russians.
The Finnish government is coming under a lot of public and political pressure because of the Russians.
In fact, it is being sought to close the European Union’s eastern border with Russia and to end an apparent sanctions loophole.
Russia eased border restrictions related to COVID-19 in mid-July, meaning for the first time since before the pandemic, Russians with Schengen visas can now legally cross the border by bus or car, although they are prohibited from travel to the EU by plane and train.
“The Russians are starting to come,” said Juho Pesonen, a tourism business professor at the University of Eastern Finland. “Shopping tourism has always been one of the main reasons why Russian tourists come to Finland, even if it’s just for a day.”
But the fact that there are any Russians coming to Finland at all is notable because Finland is now the last EU country bordering Russia that still issues tourist visas – around 13,000 so far this year – while other countries such as Poland and the Baltic countries have stopped doing so.
Otherwise, until now in July there have been about 176 thousand border crossings. This is much lower than before the pandemic, when there were close to 950,000 crossings in July 2019, with tens of thousands of Russians arriving every day.