HELSINKI, March 25 – Finland’s national rail operator will shut down services between Helsinki and Saint Petersburg in Russia on Monday, closing one of the last public transport routes into the European Union to Russians.
In light of sanctions against Russia, operator VR has been ordered by the state to stop operating the service to Saint Petersburg known as Allegro, its head of passenger transport, Topi Simola, said in a statement on Friday.
“That’s why we’re stopping traffic for the time being,” said Simola.
Trains from Russia to the Finnish capital, Helsinki, have been packed with Russians since the invasion of Ukraine, which Russia describes as “a special operation,” began and mutual airspace closures severed air links between Russia and the European Union. Continue reading
The border between Finland and Russia remains open for crossings with private cars.
Finland’s State Holdings Minister, Tytti Tuppurainen, told the country’s largest daily Helsingin Sanomat that one of the reasons for maintaining train service so far was to allow Finns living in Russia to return to Finland.
“Now it shows that the situation for the Allegro (trains) has changed and that the continuation of Allegro traffic is no longer up-to-date from the point of view of the land owner,” she told the newspaper.
Tuppurainen was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Reuters.
Reporting by Anne Kauranen; Adaptation by Toby Chopra