Russian tourists traveling from Finland to Russia found a non-trivial way to keep their cash euros — they began to “hide” currency in the forest, right on the border, due to fear of their seizure by Finnish customs officials, who are guided by the ban on cash euros in the country introduced in March 2022 Russian Federation
“Fontantsi.ru” became aware of at least two cases of such action. The Russians remembered the old Russian method of preserving valuables: to prevent their removal, they bury them, no, not in the “field of fools”, but in the forest. Tourists do not go far but bury themselves right next to the border until the next time.
“We went to Finland this Sunday. The news was read on the “Fountain” that the Finns were withdrawing currency. They didn’t have time to spend, they couldn’t buy a card. They decided not to risk it. The idea was spied on in “Eagle and Rest” – they buried their 300 euros under a tree, on a lawn on the way from Lappeenranta. Previously wrapped in a bag and put in a bottle of 0.5. The location was removed, and the coordinates were preserved. We will return at the beginning of October. I hope that no one will find her before us,” Elizaveta, a resident of St. Petersburg, said on September 14.
According to the publication, this is not the first case. A similar story is mentioned at least once more in the “On the border” chat, where tourists post travel reports to Finland. However, it is possible that with the popularization of the trend of burying money, Finns will walk near the border with shovels in their hands…
“Yesterday, when entering the Russian Federation on Brusnychny, in the queue, a woman said that her Finns had just been denied entry with 100 euros – they had turned them back, and all the shops were closed. She got out and buried a treasure in the forest,” said one of the travelers in the chat.
Other community members speculated that there would probably be more such “treasures” in the future. It will be recalled that at the end of August, Finnish customs officers became more actively interested in cash from Russian tourists who are leaving for their homeland.
Adding fuel to the fire of fears was the incident with a resident of St. Petersburg, from whom 1,390 euros were confiscated right on the Finnish-Russian border, referring to the sanctions of the European Union. However, during the next visit to the country of lakes, he was able to return everything down to the last euro, simply showing the customs officers a passport and a certificate of withdrawal of funds.
We will remind you that the ban on the export of cash euros from the countries of the European Union to Russia, by analogy with the same bans on the export of dollars from the USA, was adopted by the authorities of the bloc back in March 2022. According to the Department of Customs Control of Finland, taking cash from tourists is legal and complies with Article 5i of the EU Council Regulation. According to the article, it is prohibited to sell/supply/transfer or export banknotes denominated in any official currency of an EU member state to Russia or any natural or legal person, organization or body in Russia. The customs of Finland is guided by the fact that western currency is not needed in Russia, but is needed only for the individual purposes of tourists during their stay in the EU countries.