In Poland and Estonia, which have stricter visa rules than Finland, all Russians are interpreted as a security threat. Not in Finland.
Foreign minister Pekka Haavisto (vihr) considers it possible that the European Union will ban tourist visas from Russians completely.
According to him, the decision would probably require that the EU countries introduce a visa issued for humanitarian reasons at the same time.
“If the EU decides on a complete ban on tourist visas – which I consider quite possible that it will be done in the EU – the EU countries and also Finland should have another type of visa in their back pocket for, for example, critical journalists, citizen activists or representatives of the opposition. Baltic countries, among others, have adopted such,” says Haavisto in an interview with HS.
Read more: The government is planning a new humanitarian visa because of the war in Ukraine – Haavisto knocks down the horror pictures painted in public
Haavisto says that the visa ban would require a common EU approach. Haavisto has stated the same before at least In an interview with IS on Tuesday.
“We have done what can be done legally in this situation. It suits us very well if the EU makes visas the subject of sanctions, in which case the entire EU would implement them and they would have a clear legal basis,” says Haavisto.
“We are now waiting for EU guidelines. We are ready for strictures,” he says.
The strictest the visa line has been represented by Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which have decided to close their borders to Russian tourists completely.
Although Finland’s new visa line is strict by European standards, it is the most permissive of Russia’s EU border neighbors, although very few tourist visas are issued to Russians in Finland anymore.
Read more: Haavisto: Finland limits tourist visas for Russians to one-tenth of the current amount – Duma representative: The decision may have a negative impact on the relations between the two countries
However, thousands of Russians still have a valid visa issued by Finland, and many European countries still issue a large number of visas to Russians, which allow them to freely move to the EU territory also through Finland.
According to preliminary information, the decisions of Poland and the Baltic states mean that Russians cannot enter Europe through these countries, even with visas issued in other Schengen countries. The Schengen area is an area of 26 European countries where you can travel freely. Russia does not belong to the region.
Are the Baltic countries and Poland subject to different EU rules than Finland, because they can ban tourist visas completely and Finland can only limit them to the minimum?
“We have reviewed the legal basis of the national visa restrictions with, among other things, the Chancellor of Justice. It reviewed the new guidelines issued by the Commission, and Finland introduced visa restrictions within the limits allowed by these guidelines.”
“Those countries have interpreted the Schengen rules and ruled that every Russian citizen is a security threat. This would be a very dramatic interpretation in our circumstances. We have heard the views of the protection police, the police and the Border Guard, but they have not seen every Russian as a security threat.”
Is it the case that if the security authorities considered that all Russians are a threat, Finland could also act like Poland?
“Of course, this would be the case if our security authorities, even at some level, saw it this way, be it the Defense Forces, the police or the border. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, we cannot make such an interpretation if the security authorities do not have such a view.”
Poland has also prohibited Russians from crossing its borders with visas issued by the Schengen countries. Couldn’t Finland do that too?
“This is our understanding that this is how it has been done there. However, we should set up an internal border inspection at the borders of EU countries, so that we would know if Russians are passing from Estonia or Poland to other places.”
On September 1, Finland tightened the granting of tourist visas to Russians. How many are granted now?
“I don’t have an exact number, but I was last told today, Wednesday, that the number is two percent of what it was before the corona pandemic, which means the number has come down very dramatically.”
Doesn’t Finland make new restrictions on tourist visas for Russians before the EU decides on common visa practices?
“Let’s just say that it would be a big improvement if the EU could get even as strict a common policy as Finland is implementing now. On September 1, we introduced all the strictures that are now possible in the EU. Sweden has followed our model.”
“We are now waiting for EU guidelines. We are ready if there are joint sanctions decisions. With the new visa solutions, our own visas are pretty much at a minimum, but the big question is how the issuance of Schengen visas from other countries will proceed. They also go over the Finnish border. That’s why the EU’s common policy is very important.”
“According to our information, Greece, Italy and Spain have been the biggest issuers of visas since the corona period. Now we will see how the suspension of the visa facilitation agreement decided at the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers at the end of August affects the distribution of visas in different countries.”
Read more: The EU’s foreign ministers reached an agreement on limiting the issuance of visas to Russians – according to Haavisto, many people only realized at the meeting how much is being moved across the border
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