22 Sep 2022 06:55 am
Finland no longer wants to be a transit country for Russians with Schengen visas. This was stated by Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto at a press conference in New York. Against this background, the country intends to impose a total entry ban on Russian citizens.
Finland wants to introduce a complete entry ban for Russian citizens. This is reported by the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti citing the country’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, who was speaking at a press conference as part of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. The news agency quotes Finland’s chief diplomat:
“We decided today to prepare a national decision on how we can limit or prevent this flow of tourists altogether.”
Haavisto pointed out that experts from various departments, led by the State Department, have already started drafting the measure. The Foreign Minister underlined that Finland does not want to be a transit country for Russian citizens:
“Finland does not want to be a transit country, even for Russians with Schengen visas issued by other countries. Now we want to take control of these movements.”
It was also said that the matter would be discussed in Parliament in the near future. The Finnish foreign ministry chief also stressed that he had repeatedly raised the issue at the EU level, as “there are no moral or ethical reasons for Russian tourists to continue to go on vacation as if nothing happened”.
So far, Finland is the only country in the European Union that Russians can enter via the land border. On September 19, a decision by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to ban entry to Russian and Belarusian citizens with Schengen visas issued by other EU members came into force.
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Source: RT
