Caroline Baudry
modified to
12:42 p.m., March 15, 2022
In the aftermath of the invasion of Ukraine, ticket sales to sit in the “Allegro” exploded. This high-speed train connects St. Petersburg to Helsinki, the capital of Finland in 3.5 hours. This is one of the last ways for Russian nationals to cross the border into the European Union. Our special correspondent met them for Europe 1.
Platform number 9. The train in the colors of Russia enters the station. A hundred passengers disembark, most with serious faces. Taïssia drags a suitcase, shocked by her country’s entry into the war… “I understood that it was the death of Russian society. The death of morality! I never stopped expressing myself on my Facebook or Instagram account for example. I do not want to be silent. So, yes, I feel the danger”, she confides to Europe 1.
“Everything is falling apart”
Anxiety, fear, she says, and then the emptiness of a new life to start here in Helsinki, in Georgia or in Armenia. Constantin and his wife descended among the last, a baby in their arms, which they will raise in Canada. “To escape… this diet! It’s like a brain attack. I have relatives who encourage this terrible situation. But I can’t understand. And then the shops close, but life is almost normal, when we see that everything is collapsing, that the economy is collapsing”, they testify on Europe 1.
Articles translated into Russian
As a welcome, a piece of paper is taped to the platform. We learn that the largest Finnish daily is translating articles into Russian to continue to inform about the invasion, led by President Vladimir Putin, that none of these exiles encountered dare to name.