New statement on The “old way” has once again made Finland popular with Russian tourists, according to which the country intends to further restrict the entry of “our” travelers and “transiters” into its territory, because it registers a large number of arrivals. To do this, it is proposed to ban the entry of tourists with Schengen issued by both the Finnish authorities and the authorities of other states.
As recently as last week, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto announced that all Russians with a valid tourist visa would be banned from entering the northern country to use it as a transit zone with subsequent access to Europe. According to Yle, Finland's national public broadcaster, the Finnish authorities decided to take such measures because considered that the reputation of the country suffered because of the open borders for Russians. As a reminder, in just 2 days after the entry ban imposed by the Baltic countries, approximately 6,500 of our fellow citizens entered Finland.
In a video conference from New York, Haavisto said that all border crossings for tourism purposes across the Finnish land border would be prevented. However, it was noted that the country will still remain open to certain categories of travelers. Under the new policy, which is currently in preparation, the restrictions will also apply to those who hold Schengen visas issued by other states, and not only to those who hold a visa issued by the Finnish authorities.< /p>
In addition to the above, the minister noted that Finland will cancel multiple-entry visas issued to citizens of the Russian Federation. Earlier, on September 20, Finland had already applied to the Commission of the European Union with a request to issue a general recommendation for all countries of the Schengen Agreement on invalidating visas issued to Russians and imposing a ban on entry for them.
“Finland asks for a recommendation whereby the Schengen countries, while preventing the entry of Russian citizens at their border, at the same time either revoke or revoke a person’s visa, or prohibit the person from entering in accordance with normal Schengen practice,” the ministry said in a statement. Foreign Affairs.
Not only the authorities, but the Finns themselves support the anti-Russian line of conduct. Thus, a recent poll showed that about 85% of the citizens of the country surveyed were in favor of suspending tourist visas for Russians and issuing a new Schengen, and another 80% of them said that Finland should not allow entry to Russian tourists who already have a visa issued by the authorities Finland or any other European country. On the other hand, 4% of respondents said that the country should not stop cutting off tourist ties with the Russian Federation and spoke out against the introduction of a ban on issuing visas to our compatriots – details here.
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