'The Russians have started coming': Finland considers tourist visa ban

The Finnish government is coming under increasing public and political pressure to close the EU's eastern border with Russia, and put a stop to an apparent sanctions loophole.

Russia relaxed its COVID-related border restrictions mid-July, meaning for the first time since before the pandemic, Russians with Schengen visas can now legally cross the border by bus or car, even though they're banned from travelling to the EU in planes and trains. 

"The Russians have started coming," said Juho Pesonen, Professor of Tourism Business at the University of Eastern Finland. 

"Shopping tourism has always been one of the main reasons why Russian tourists come to Finland, even if it's just for a day," he told Euronews. 

The absolute numbers now are not huge: So far in July there's been around 176,000 border crossings. That's much lower than before the pandemic when there were close to 950,000 crossings in July 2019, with tens of thousands of Russians coming each day. 

Lappeenranta, the main city in southeast Finland, was raking in a million euros in daily revenue before the pandemic, thanks to the spending power of Russians.  

But the fact there are any Russians coming to Finland at all is notable because Finland is now the last EU country bordering Russia to still issue tourist visas -- some 13,000 so far this year -- while other countries like Poland and the Baltic countries have stopped doing so.

Moscow "will react very negatively" if Helsinki follows their lead and also suspends visa services for Russians, a Kremlin spokesperson said this week.

There is broad support within the main political parties in Finland to stop Russian tourism by not issuing new visas. However, this is undermined somewhat by the estimated 100,000 Russians who