Finnish border guards offered a tourist from Russia to spend the night on benches in the transit zone instead of a booked hotel room.
The Russian arrived on a flight from London after 9 pm. To comply with Suomi’s demands for immediate transit to Russia, he had only one chance – a bus that was supposed to leave Finland for the city on the Neva in a little over an hour. There were few guarantees to catch it – in case of plane delays and long conversations at the border, a bus ticket was bought for the next day.
“At passport control, the officer looked at the ticket to St. Petersburg, at the hotel reservation and … refused a pass – you will be in Finland for too long, and according to the rules, you must leave it immediately. “And what do you suggest?” Answer: “Spend the night at the airport on the seats, and tomorrow we will let you through an hour before the bus,” the tourist said.
Attempts to explain that even if he spends the night at the airport, even at the hotel, he does not speed up his departure from Finland, did not lead to success. Both the border guard in the window and the senior shift who came at the request of the Russian were adamant.