With around 17,000 entries, Finnish border guards announced on Monday that they had recorded the busiest weekend of the year for Russian entries, twice as many since the announcement of Moscow’s “partial” mobilization for the war in Ukraine. “This weekend was the busiest of the year in terms of traffic from the eastern border,” Mert Sasioglu, a border authority official, told AFP.
On Saturday, 8,572 Russians entered Finland via the land border – for 4,199 exits to Russia, and 8,314 on Sunday – for 5,068 exits, according to statistics released on Monday.
A lower number of passengers than in the pre-Covid period
For Mert Sasioglu, “the level is about double what it was a week ago”, before the mobilization order announced on Wednesday by Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The main reason is mobilization,” said the head of border guards, even if the number of crossings remains lower than that recorded before the Covid-19 pandemic. The weekend is traditionally the period that sees the most traffic at border crossings, the busiest of which is at Vaalima, halfway between the Finnish capital Helsinki and the Russian metropolis of Saint Petersburg.
Norway, which is not a member of the European Union but belongs to the Schengen area, for its part recorded a slight increase in crossings from Russia at its border post of Storskog in the Far North. “We (…) see that the number of Russian men arriving on Schengen visas has increased and represents the bulk of the increase in the past week,” regional police official Sølve Solheim said in a statement. a statement.
On Sunday, 243 people entered Norway, including 167 with a Schengen visa, and 91 left for Russia, according to the police. She also points out that these figures are lower than the pre-Covid period, but she says she expects a possible further increase this week.
Georgia and Turkey face surges in admissions
Other countries such as Georgia or Turkey are facing increases in Russian entries in recent days. Finland announced on Friday that it would “significantly restrict” in “the coming days” Russian access to the Nordic country, which has already become a place of transit this summer to the rest of Europe. Russian citizens with a European Schengen tourist visa, even valid, will soon be turned back at the border, even when the visa is issued by a country other than Finland.
The border guards said they were ready to apply the measure “in one day”, Mert Sasioglu preparing for “difficult developments” in the near future. “With the restrictions, it is possible that illegal crossing attempts will increase,” he said. Four people suspected of wanting to cross the border illegally were arrested on Saturday – all of them have requested asylum, according to the Finnish authorities.
At the beginning of the summer, the lifting of anti-covid restrictions on both the Russian and Finnish sides had resulted in a sharp increase in the passage of Russians via Finland, at the border or via Helsinki airport. The presence among these of many holidaymakers with European visas using the country as a stopover to travel elsewhere in the European Union had sparked a controversy and pushed the executive to adopt the first restrictions.