Dozens, if not hundreds, of luxury cars with Russian plates take up parking spaces at Helsinki Airport every day. Most of their owners arrive in the capital of Finland only to transfer to a plane and fly to other European countries.
Finland remains one of the key transit routes for Russian tourists wishing to travel to Europe. In this regard, dissatisfaction with Finland’s visa policy is growing in Europe. The EU closed its airspace to Russian aircraft after the war in Ukraine, forcing any Russian wishing to travel to Europe to cross the border or take detour routes using non-Western airlines.
Since Russia’s anti-COVID restrictions expired in mid-July, the number of Russian tourists using Finland as a transit point to access Europe has skyrocketed. According to a study conducted by the Finnish Border Guard in August, about 2/3 of Russians cross the eastern border of Finland with a Schengen visa issued not by Finland, but by another country – Hungary, Spain, Italy, Austria, Greece, and Spain ….
“Many saw this as a circumvention of the sanctions regime. At the moment, there are a lot of tourists from Russia at Helsinki Airport,” Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said, referring to transit tourism.
Europe is calling on Finland to tighten entry rules for tourists from Russia who use Helsinki as a transit point. The Nordic country intends to raise this issue at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers in the Czech Republic. Last week, Finland announced that from September 1, it will limit the number of tourist visas issued to Russian citizens by 10 times. The reason is dissatisfaction with the free movement of Russians against the backdrop of hostilities.