“I don’t intend to return to Russia anytime soon,” says Elena, who lives in Finland. The trains connecting St. Petersburg with Helsinki, the only line still open between Russia and the European Union (EU), are packed with Russians eager to get out of the country while they can.
At the station in the Finnish capital, some passengers on the 06:40 train from Saint Petersburg explain that they saw it as one of the last opportunities to set foot on European soil after the almost complete paralysis of air traffic.
“We decided to return as quickly as possible, because we don’t know what the situation will be like in a week,” says Polina Poliakova, a Muscovite studying in Paris.
Traveling “is difficult at the moment because everything is cancelled,” says Beata Iukhtanova, her friend who is also studying in the French capital, where they will now travel by plane.
The empty trains of the pandemic are far away. The “Allegro” express wagons that connect St. Petersburg with the Finnish capital “are now fully booked for the next few days”, says one of the directors of the Finnish railway operator VR, Topi Simola.
On Saturday, just two days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, passenger numbers in that direction rose sharply, while trains heading back to Moscow were only 30% full.
“With the luggage they carry, we can see that they move, they really move,” says Simola.
“We are lucky”
However, the Allegro is only available to Finnish citizens and not all Russian citizens can access the trains.
In addition to having a valid Schengen visa, travelers must have received a vaccine against COVID-19 recognized by the EU, which is not the case with the Sputnik immunizer, the most widely used in Russia.
That is why most of the passengers are Russians who already live or work in Europe, like 14-year-old Maria and her mother Svetlana, who took a train to Finland after their flight was canceled on Sunday to return to Austria, where they live.
“Everyone said ‘I don’t know what to do,’” recalls María as she got off the train. “First we thought we would have to go through Turkey, but it is much more expensive than Finland, so we are lucky,” she adds.
VR, which operates the service in collaboration with Russian Railways, wants to open the service to other EU nationalities and increase its capacity.
“We know that there are tens of thousands of EU citizens still in Russia and we assume that many of them would like to return home,” explains Simola.
leave desperately
Russians who have returned to Finland in recent days describe a climate of great concern as Russia continues attacks in Ukraine.
“There are a lot of people panicking,” confesses Daria, who returned to Helsinki earlier than planned for her studies.
“I know people who are desperately looking to go abroad right now,” continues Elena, a Russian who lives and works in Finland.
When the assault on Ukraine began last Thursday, he was visiting Moscow, his hometown. She immediately changed her flight to return to Finland on the same day, becoming one of the last people to travel before the freeze on flights to the EU.
Many “do not feel safe” in Russia, deepens the 37-year-old woman, who prefers not to give her last name.
“They know that the economic situation will be very difficult from now on, and many people cannot bear to stay from a moral point of view,” he says.
“I have no intention of going back to Russia anytime soon, that’s clear,” says Elena. However, despite the difficulties that exist there, “it is impossible to compare (the situation) with the horrors that are happening in Ukraine right now”, she reflects.
Source: Gestion
Ricardo is a renowned author and journalist, known for his exceptional writing on top-news stories. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he is known for his ability to deliver breaking news and insightful analysis on the most pressing issues of the day.
