News in Russian | На похораны – можно, на свадьбу – нет

В пятницу30 июня, на финских грансих недуили все restrictions, connected with the pandemic короноварина.

Now citizens of third countries do not require certificates of vaccinations, transferred diseases and results of analyses; не делать больше и ПЦР-тесты. “Third countries” in this case mean all states that are not part of the European Union and the Schengen zone, including Russia.

Кроме того, Finland has removed all restrictions on the work of its visa centers, which have also been in effect since March 2020.

All this means that the eastern border of the country has returned to its usual mode of operation. It was possible to expect an increase in the number of Russian tourists.

However On Friday, nothing similar was observed.

«After midnight, when the border only opened, a couple of dozen cars passed by, – the head of border crossing Vaalimaa Yussi Pekkala said on Friday afternoon, – then the situation calmed down. Today, contrary to expectations, we did not record an increase in flow. The traffic was as calm as usual lately.»

For example, on the last Thursday, exactly 1000 travelers crossed the border here. Всего же, in the last time, every day, about two thousand people passed through Vaalimaa.

This is roughly twice as much as in the calmest days of the pre-koronavirus era.

Днём On Friday, there were several cars standing in a small queue to enter Finland.

Около часа дня границу прошёл вчастравский домой в Helsinki Nikolay Mikheev. According to him, he sometimes goes to Petersburg with his wife several times a week. This time together with him in the car – three of his familiar young women. They are going on vacation to Croatia through the Helsinki-Vantaa airport.

Finland for them – only transit point. Как и для много другие, проходящих границу в Ваалимаа.

Одна из попутчиц, Ksenia Khrustenkoindignant over a thorough border inspection:

«Inspector searched all my baggage: and underwear, and makeup. А я все ето гладила и собирала пять часов! Я в шоке».

They didn’t decide to go through Finland at all because of the removal of restrictions – Mikheev simply offered to bring them to the airport.

Khrustenko says that before the trip, she passed the PCR test just in case, although after the attack of Russia on Ukraine, most people already forgot about the virus:

«Putin cured the entire world from the coronavirus with his performance».

Tattoo artist Felix Porin – citizen of Israel, living in Saint-Petersburg. Он едет на совей машине в Шелсински на выходные очень с друга.

“He’s traveling all the time, he doesn’t want to go back to Russia,” says Feliks about his friend, “so Finland is the closest place where I can drink with him.” I think we’ll go to the bar on Eerinkatu».

At the same time, Porin assures that he is still going on a mission. Его друг Сергей – also a tattoo artist, so specialists in the bar will simply exchange experience.

At the end of the interview, the tattoo master gave the journalist some homemade stickers.

И Porinand other interlocutors say that there are enough cars and several buses on the Russian border.

Between the hour and the third day, two such buses regularly pass by between Russia and Finland.

While the bus passes the customs inspection, its passengers hide from the blazing sun in the shade of the canopy.

Шреди них нароблестроитель из Петербурга Vladimir Lazarevwho is going to work at the shipyard in Turku.

Thanks to his contract, he traveled to Finland before, during the pandemic. Последний раз – literally a couple of weeks ago.

Lazarev says that he knows about the lifting of restrictions on the Finnish border: «Конечно, я в курсе. Я же читаю новости».

However, he would have gone here anyway.

В Vaalimaa they were ready to increase passenger flow – they even opened an additional building for the implementation of border control. However, it was not needed. The main reason – restrictions on international trips of citizens who continue to operate in Russia.

«It is quite difficult for us to predict – how strictly they will follow their own rules», – says Yussi Pekkala.

Russians need a valid reason to leave the country by land transport. Таковой могут стать, for example, the funeral of a close person.

А вот спеченная свадьба – no. It barely became a big problem for Volgograd Юлии Кочетовойwhose marriage with a citizen of Finland is planned in Ярвенпяя на чалое июля.

To get to Finland, Kochetova had to sign up for an appointment at the laboratory of the central hospital of the University of Helsinki (HUS). This allowed her to leave Russia for medical reasons.

Having told all this, Yuliya gave our journalist a postcard with the image of the tallest statue in Russia – «Mother of the Motherland» on Mamaev Kurgane – and left on the bus.

But soon she came back with a ballpoint pen to write in English: «Моему замечательному финскому другу от Волгоградской девушки».

Article first published on 2 July 2022.

You can read the article in Finnish from here.