Finland says traffic is “increasing” at the border with Russia

Finnish border guards said that traffic to Finland’s eastern border with Russia “intensified” overnight after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial military mobilization and remained high on Thursday but was under control.

At the Valima border crossing, about a three-hour drive from St Petersburg, Russia’s second-largest city, three lanes of cars each stretched 300-400 meters (yards) around 1:15 p.m. local time (1015 GMT), according to to a border official. to Reuters.

The crossing is one of nine on Finland’s 1,300 km (800 mi) border with Russia, the longest in the European Union.

Defense Minister Antti Kakkonen said on Wednesday that Finland is closely monitoring the situation in its neighbor following Putin’s order on Wednesday to mobilize for war in Ukraine.

Putin’s announcement, made in an early morning televised address, raised concerns that some men of fighting age would not be allowed to leave Russia and prompted one-way trips out of the country to sell out quickly. Read more

Finnish land border crossings remained among the few entry points into Europe for the Russians after a series of Western countries closed both their physical borders and their airspace to Russian aircraft in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Traffic at the Finnish-Russian border intensified during the night,” Matti Petkaniti, head of international affairs at the border guards, said in a tweet on Twitter. He told Reuters that border guards are ready at the nine checkpoints.

Although traffic from Russia was busier than usual, border guards said in a statement that it had not changed “disturbingly” in recent days compared to pre-pandemic times.

The statement warned against circulating “incorrect and misleading” information on social media.

At around 1540 local time (1240 GMT), traffic calmed somewhat, according to a Reuters witness, with cars stretching out over three lanes, each 150 metres.

Finland chose to keep its border with Russia open after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 although it reduced the number of consular appointments available to Russian travelers seeking visas. Read more

Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, other European Union countries bordering Russian territory, began turning away Russian citizens from transit at midnight on Monday, saying they should not travel while their country is at war with Ukraine. Read more

Ministers of the three Baltic states said on Wednesday that the three Baltic states would not offer any sanctuary to any Russians fleeing Moscow’s buildup of forces. Read more

Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, said during a visit to New York late on Wednesday that Finland is working on its national solution to limit tourist traffic from Russia.

“Finland does not want to be a transit country for Schengen (EU) visas issued by other countries. This is the traffic we want to control,” Haavisto told reporters.

Petkaniti said 4,824 Russians reached Finland via the eastern border on Wednesday, up from 3,133 the previous week.

A police official told Reuters that in far northern Norway there was no change in the number of Russians crossing. Norway is not a member of the European Union.

Additional reporting by Stein Jacobsen in Copenhagen, Issey Leto in Helsinki, Mila Nessi in Gdansk, Goladis Fuchs in Oslo and Andrios Setas in Vilnius; Writing by Stein Jacobsen and Goladis Fuchs, Editing by Terry Solsvik, Kim Coogle, Mark Heinrich and Catherine Evans

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