The garage of the airport in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, is crowded with luxury cars bearing Russian license plates, in a scene that summarizes the story of the transformation of this Scandinavian country into a “transit” station for Russian travelers.
There are dozens if not hundreds of luxury cars from Porsche, Bentley and Mercedes parked in the garage of Helsinki Airport, according to the British newspaper, “The Guardian”, on Tuesday.
A quick tour of Helsinki’s garage shows luxury Russian cars, including the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Sedan and Porsche 911 Turbo S.
For his part, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto stressed that his country has become a “transit country” for Russian tourists.
He added that the airport of the Finnish capital is witnessing a large movement of Russian tourism at the present time.
And Helsinki said, last week, that it would reduce tourist visas for Russians to 10% compared to the current numbers, with the decision to enter into force on the first of next September, due to the escalation of popular discontent with this tourism.
Luxury cars at Helsinki airport – AFP
Russians can enter Finland on “Schengen” visas issued by several European countries.
“These come on Schengen visas issued by several European countries and then continue to travel through Helsinki airport,” Haavisto said.
A survey conducted by the Finnish Border Authority in August showed that two-thirds of Russians who enter Finland from the eastern border do so via “Schengen” visas issued by countries other than Finland.
Although many European countries stopped granting tourist visas to Russians with the outbreak of the Ukraine war, other countries continued to grant them, and this means that they can enter all the countries of the bloc.
Helsinki Airport – AFP
It is noteworthy that with the outbreak of war in Ukraine on February 24, the European Union closed the airspace to Russian aircraft, forcing anyone who wanted to travel from Russia to this bloc to travel by car or take an indirect route through non-Western airlines.
What explains the Russians’ desire to travel through Finland is its geographical proximity to their country.