HS on the eastern border | Among the last to cross the border before midnight, they tell us about their plans: “The situation is extremely painful for us”

Finland the decision to close the borders with Russia to tourist traffic from Friday did not cause congestion at the border stations.

On Thursday evening, the traffic at the Nuijamaa border station in Lappeenranta was calm as usual. Dozens of cars instead of hundreds were queuing for the border inspection.

Was the decision to stop tourist traffic from Russia right or wrong?

“This is a shame, because we are used to the fact that we can visit Finland,” said a Muscovite who came on vacation Dmitry Kononov.

He does not believe that preventing tourism will help in resolving the conflict, although he says that he understands Finland’s solution in this situation.

Kononov was on the move with his young son Dmitri’s with. However, the boy does not have to be afraid of being on the Ukrainian front, as he has been exempted from military service for health reasons.

Read more: Finland’s border will be closed to Russian tourists next night, with several exceptions to the decision

in Tampere and living in St. Petersburg Gennady Zaitsev is Russian by birth, but currently only a citizen of Finland.

“Blocking tourism makes the relations between the two countries even weaker. Tourism unites nations and makes them understand each other better,” says Zaitsev.

In his opinion, Finland should use other means to end the war. According to Zaitsev, economic means, i.e. sanctions against Russia, have already been almost exhausted, and now, in his opinion, diplomacy should be resorted to.

“The more we talk and listen to each other, the better.”

Should so for example the president Sauli Niinistön propose negotiations the president to Vladimir Putin?

“Why not,” says Zaitsev.

He has enough understanding for Russia. According to Zaitsev, the war is due to the fact that Russia’s viewpoints have not been taken seriously enough internationally since 2005 and during the Ukrainian revolution in 2014, when the pro-Russian president was ousted.

“It could be that Ukraine wanted to move towards the West, but at whose expense?”

Zaitsev also believes that the Crimean referendum on annexation to Russia in 2014, engineered by Russia and condemned as illegal by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, for example, was legal.

“Why wouldn’t it have been legal?”

Read more: Russia: We react to Finland’s border decision in accordance with our own interests

In their thirties Petersburgers Victor and Juliet are leaving Russia for the time being, maybe even permanently. They don’t want to give their last name to protect their relatives.

Finland is just a place of transit for them.

“We have a work visa and are going to work in Hungary,” says Viktor.

He says he was able to leave Russia without any problems, even though he is of legal age.

“I’m not on the invitation list. I don’t know why, but the invitation system is generally not very transparent,” he says.

What do they think about the future of Russia?

“It is very unclear. We hope for the best,” they say.

St. Petersburg Victoria came to Finland to visit relatives for the weekend with his sister-in-law. He says he is saddened by the difficulty of crossing the border.

“Russian tourists have brought a lot of money to Finland.”

Viktorija also hopes that, for example, it would still be possible to get a Schengen visa based on kinship.

“There is still much that is unclear in the new visa policy,” Viktorija says.

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine terrifies him.

“I am Ukrainian myself and I moved to Russia when I married a Russian. My husband is also half Ukrainian. The situation is extremely painful for us,” he says.

To the country of Nuijama there were also Ukrainian asylum seekers from the Russian-occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Resident in Donetsk Vladislav26, and from Mariupol Vladimir29, fled from eastern Ukraine to Finland via Rostov-on-Don, Moscow and St. Petersburg.

“We couldn’t leave the occupied territory to Ukraine, the only way out was through Russia,” says Vladislav.

He does not want to give his last name because he is afraid that the Russian authorities will start harassing his parents, who remained in Donetsk.

“In Russia, the FSB already took my parents’ contact information from me,” says Vladislav.

Vladislav and Vladimir say that life in eastern Ukraine became difficult after the Russian occupation began in 2014.

“There has been total lawlessness ever since. Those who represent the Russian regime are pure criminals, and the power belongs to whoever has the weapons. And now the Russians are asking us to go to war against our own citizens,” says Vladislav.

Russia has claimed that it is a completely self-initiated uprising of the eastern Ukrainians and their desire to join Russia.

“It’s ridiculous. Why would Ukrainians rise against other Ukrainians? Besides, all the tanks and other weapons were brought to Eastern Ukraine from Russia,” says Vladimir.

He characterizes the elections organized by Russia and called referendums to join the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia to Russia as theater.

“Representatives of the Russian administration went from apartment to apartment with guns and forced people to vote,” says Vladimir.

Vladislav estimates that many Russians have changed their minds about the war since the declaration of the movement. “They have understood that they are expected to commit crimes and kill civilians in Ukraine.”

There is also a small group of Russians in Russia who help the Ukrainians. “They take a big risk, but they still help us.”

According to Vladislav, the war started by Russia against Ukraine is due to Russia’s desire for power. The Russian state media has shaped the atmosphere for a war of aggression by branding Ukrainians as fascists and Nazis.

“It is propaganda against the Ukrainian people. They blame us for what they themselves are guilty of.”