Finland Tightens Visa Rules For Russian Tourists

Finland is tightening visa regulations for Russian visitors

Helsinki 17 August : Finland will issue less visas for tourists to Russians starting in September in the wake of Russia’s continuing incursion of Ukraine.
“We are limiting the number of accepted requests to one-tenth of the current amount,” dpa news agency quoted Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto as saying on Finnish radio on Tuesday.

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According to the national television station Yle that the European Union (EU) country handles around one thousand Russian visa applications each day.

“At the same at the same time, we want to facilitate people to travel to Finland to study, work or to visit family members,” Haavisto said.

“So there must be a solution for those with reasons to travel to Finland however, the standard tourist visa will be more difficult to obtain.”

Finland is located near Russia and is a member of NATO due to the outbreak of the conflict is trying to receive the largest number of Ukrainian refugees as they can and the large number of Russian visitors on the top of that has raised concerns.

“For many Finns it was difficult to comprehend,” Haavisto added.

Opinion polls have found that the majority of Finns support the idea of restricting Russian tourist visas.

The Prime Minister Sanna Marin had floated the idea of an all-encompassing EU prohibition on Russian tourists during a meeting with Nordic and German leaders on Monday.

However, German Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz is against the plan because he believes it will deter people from fleeing the Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime.

Haavisto said he hopes for a consensus on a path forward at the gathering of EU Foreign Ministers near the close of the month.

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