Influx of Russians thru land borders on rise

An increasing number of Russian people arrived in Finland through land borders during the weekend, said Finnish Border Guard on Sunday.

A total of 8 572 Russians entered into Finland via Finnish-Russian land borders on Saturday, said the Border Guard in a twitter post on Sunday morning. The number was 5286 on the previous Saturday.

“Border traffic at Finnish Russian land border has remained on higher level than in previous weeks. Lots of uncertainty about the Future. Finnish Border Guard is prepared for different developments, also difficult ones,” Head of Int Affairs Unit of Finnish Border Guard Matti Pitkäniitty wrote in a twitter post late Sunday night.

He said that total amount of Russian arrivals during the weekend at the land border seems to go bit over 15 000 but he estimated that the number will be between 15000 and 20000.

“But we know exact numbers in the morning,” he added.

Earlier on Saturday, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said that increasing volume of Russian tourists transiting via Finland are causing serious harm to Finland’s international relations and entry into Finland can be refused under the Schengen Borders Code.

The President and the Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy on Friday decided that the government would issue a resolution placing significant restrictions on the issuing of visas to Russian citizens.