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After Putin announced a partial mobilization in Russia that led to the departure of hundreds of people from the country, Finland announced that it was preparing a “national solution” to limit or prevent the transit of Russian tourists through the territory. This was announced by the country’s foreign minister on Wednesday.
The Nordic country already reduced the number of visas for Russians by a tenth in September in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but it is currently the only member of the European Union that borders Russia to allow citizens to enter . Russians with Schengen visas.
In this sense, the Finnish government “has decided to prepare a national solution to limit or completely prevent this transit of Russian tourists,” said Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.
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The measures “may include new legislation that needs to be passed very quickly or an interpretation of existing law,” he added.
Finland does not want to be a transit country for Schengen visas issued by other countries. We intend to control this traffic,” the minister said.
Helsinki calls for a concerted European decision, but “there can’t be any certainty that it will happen quickly,” stressed Haavisto.
According to a survey published by the IltaSanomat newspaper on Wednesday, around 70 percent of Finns want an end to issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens.
After Vladimir Putin announced that he would mobilize hundreds of thousands of reservists to resume the Russian offensive in Ukraine, traffic at the border was “normal”, according to the Finnish border guard.
The situation “has not changed significantly,” the unit wrote on Twitter, denying rumors circulating online of miles of queues to enter the country.