Thousands of Russians leave their country through Finland fleeing sanctions

Thousands of Russian citizens have left their country through Finland in recent days fleeing the sanctions imposed on Moscow by the European Union (EU) and the United States in response to the invasion of Ukraine, local media reported Friday.

The closure of airspace has led to the suspension of flights between Russia and Europe, forcing travelers leaving Russia to the west to do so via Finland by train or road.

According to the Finnish state railway company VR, the Allegro, the high-speed train that connects St. Petersburg with Helsinki twice a day, has sold out all available tickets since last Sunday and expects the situation to continue in the coming weeks.

“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we have halved the supply of seats, which means that almost 700 people are arriving from Russia every day”, told the newspaper “Helsingin Sanomat” Topi Simola, director of VR.

Despite the restrictions, the number of passengers has multiplied by nine compared to the normal volume of the weeks before the Russian attack on Ukraine, when there were hardly any travelers due to the pandemic.

The Allegro is currently the only active rail link between Russia and the EU and at the moment, due to Moscow’s demands, it only admits passengers with Russian or Finnish nationality.

According to Simola, usually just over half of the passengers who travel to Helsinki from St. Petersburg are Russian, but in recent days the percentage is closer to 70%.

“People are fleeing sanctions, because they fear that daily life in Russia will become impossible”, Darya Gulik, from the Finnish Group of Russian-speaking Associations (Faro), told that newspaper.

According to Gulik, most Russians who come to Finland have relatives in the Nordic country or in other European countries and hope to get a residence permit so they can stay longer when their visas expire.

The Finnish Border Guard has also reported that over the last week there has been a clear increase in road traffic reaching Finland via the southern border with Russia, according to state television YLE.

The busiest border post at the moment is Vaalimaa, located on the most direct route between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, where some 1,500 people cross the border a day, mostly to Finland.

“Everything indicates that in the coming days or weeks there will be more and more people who want to cross the border,” Finnish Border Guard officer Kimmo Sainio told YLE.