A long border 1340 kilometers. The Finnish border is the hinge between Europe on the one hand and the heart of the Russia by Vladimir Putin on the other hand. The value of goods passing through here from Helsinki to Moscow is around 3.7 billion euros. The sanctions are leaving their mark: the average number of Russian export customs declarations was around 700 per dayreports the Helsinki Customs website while falling in the first week of March (with the war already underway and sanctions already under way). 300. So they are more than halved. Here’s how heavy vehicle traffic has decreased by about 5% at some border crossings: Vaalimaa, Nuiyamaa and imatra.
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War in Ukraine, the last train from Russia to Europe has arrived in Helsinki
Vehicular traffic has also undergone modifications and changes. Starting with the trains in a good moodafter the announcement days ago that the convoys have been suspended St Pietroburgo to Helsinki, valid from March 28th. It is (above all) one of the few active connections that enabled the Russians to get to Finland and thus to the European Union. First the line was expanded the 350 seats were always sold out to let passengers drive, then came the interruption. It was a communication from VR Transpoint (the structure of Finnish railway operator VR Group) that broke the news: “So far we have continued to operate Allegro according to official instructions and the goal was to guarantee Finns access to Finland. In recent weeks, people who wanted to leave Russia have had time to leave the country. Now, according to government controls, it is no longer appropriate to keep Allegro traffic running because of sanctions. So it was discontinued, he explained Simola miceHead of Passenger Transport.
The Finnish authorities require people coming from nonEU countries to have a visa and be vaccinated with one of the vaccines approved by Ema, the European Medicines Agency. On March 27, freight trains between the two countries had already been suspended, again by a note from VR Transpoint echoing the President’s words Martin Koskinen. However, on March 30, the company backed down, stating that the affected services were unaffected by the UK sanctions and could therefore continue to operate. The vehicles in question are focused on transporting products and raw materials for export. In this case, too, the figures show the relationship between the border states: the rail transport volume of VR Transpoint was around 37 million tons in 2021, and freight traffic between Finland and Russia accounts for about a third of the total volume. Meanwhile, still in the wake of sanctions against Russia, customs in Helsinki have stopped 21 pleasure boats between March 17th and 18th: Further investigations are underway to understand whether the owners are among those affected by the EU measures. In this case, the authorities can freeze the assets in question.
As for that shifts within the capital the local transport companies Hsl wrote on his website that the owners of Ukrainian passport You can travel for free until April 30: “We want to express our support for Ukrainians who have to flee their homeland because of the war,” it says. “Passengers only need to show their passport, no other ticket is required. Free entry is “also granted to those in possession of a passport confiscation certificate issued by the police, border control authorities or the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). The certificate bears the stamp of the issuing authority and a scanned copy of the passport’.