Finland closed for Russian tourists and closed Europe for them. What was happening at the border posts in the Leningrad region on the last night

Six in the morning. I almost fall asleep at the wheel of rain and the squash of the wipers, the motionless overall lights of the cars in front of me blur in drops on the windshield. The last forty minutes we are not moving. A man in a wet hood knocks on the window, a long beard sticks out of the hood, braided into a pigtail at the very end.

- Then you in St. Petersburg? He asks.

I'm trying to figure out: why in St. Petersburg? For the last six hours I have been standing here to go to Helsinki. There are many of us, at about three in the night I managed to count 65 cars, but then the turn moved, and I had to run to my own, not having read the tail another fifty meters. This is a border post peat. That is, now Waalimaa. Four hours ago, we drove the Russian border, now we are standing and waiting for the Finnish to be missed.

“They don’t miss,” the beard explains, rain is dripping from the pigtail. - Just the Finns went in turn, ask who has a tourist visa. They said they would not miss anymore.

I open the door: yes, I'm in St. Petersburg. Without waiting for the Finns to reach my visa, I turn over the continuous and food back to the Russian border guards. There is also a turn. Of those who have already watched the Finns.

- You were not allowed? - the border guard raises her eyes in surprise from my passport.

- No, she left.

At seven in the morning, I am again in a peat. Exactly seven hours ago, the “window to Europe” closed, which Peter chopped more than three hundred years ago without sparing the people. Now President Putin, not sparing the people, is chasing.

“I will go through Norway,” a tall driver with tattooed hands stubbornly says. He went out in the T -shirt in the rain and ruthlessly slapped the black Suzuki door. - I only got a visa. He served to Spain, they still give. He planned to sit out in Sweden until December, and there - already in the situation. Maybe, in general, throw a car in Finnish, then fly away in South Africa. There is summer now, you can sit at least three months.

- Will you go another one and a half thousand kilometers? I am surprised.

“By plane, the tickets are expensive,” answers the high. - I considered that I would spend less on gasoline, even if through Norway.

Departure from Russia through Finland was the penultimate accessible for those who do not have a million on a flight through Istanbul, but there is a car.

At noon on September 29, the Finnish authorities announced that exactly 12 hours later they close the entrance to the country for Russians with tourist visas. Only those who have real estate in their country will skip, and even then for urgent repairs. The last exit on the ground was the Borisoglebsk border post in the Murmansk region - Sturskug in Norway. On the afternoon of September 30, the Norwegians announced that it would probably also close it for tourists from Russia. The Finns have plans to build a wall on the border with a problematic neighbor.

Even before I arrived in Torfyanovka, I visited the second checkpoint in the Leningrad region - in Brusnice. I drove along the Simen Canal. This is an incredible beauty of the place. Eight years ago, here I went to Savonlinna to the opera festival. Then the Finns still developed, as they said, border cooperation with Russia, the stars of the Russian opera rode to this festival. In the old open-air fortress with some fantastic acoustics, they gave the “mermaid” and “Prince Igor”.

Petersburg also tried to work borderly. They built a chic autobahn so that it was more convenient to drive to the Finnish border. They called "Scandinavia." Until now, by the way, they are completed and expanded. The roadsides of the highway are drunk with hotels, motels, fast foods and gas stations. Closer to the border at the gas station and now there are trucks with European numbers. The city made a high-speed paid route so that from the Pulkovo airport you could get to Scandinavia in 15-20 minutes through the entire Peter, above it. In a word, the infrastructure was created for border cooperation.

Brusnice

Once upon a time there were a lot of multi-caliber buses at any time. After 40 kilometers - already Finnish Lappeenranta. From here, “sanctions” cheese and washing powders were carried by whole shops. And from here earlier the low -cost airlines flew to some cities of Europe.

I drove up to the lingonberry at about eleven in the evening, counted 18 cars. She went to the head of the line and counted. A young man came out of a battered red minivan. The most "mobilization" age in appearance.

“They kept me in Malinovka for half an hour,” he said. -They took a passport, they said-they will send it to some secretary, he checks who is on the list. They have many lists there, they said.

Malinovka - KP twenty kilometers from lingonberry. I was also stopped there. The man in camouflage looked at the passport and asked to lower the rear window. After making sure that I am alone in the car, I returned the passport: pass.

“They look at who is going, they don’t check the girls,” the driver of the minivan explained. - And we are checked according to the lists who received the summons.

He said that there are many lists, the secretary is sitting and checking. But I found out at the military registration and enlistment office, I am not on the lists yet. Although everything changes quickly. I leave the third time - I can’t leave. I can't decide.

In Minivan, he is taking passengers to the airport. Until this night, he had such a business.

“They only flew from Moscow at 8 pm, then they have a flight from Helsinki,” he sympathetically looks at people in the car. “I told them that we won’t have time, most likely.” They understand that they risk. They are flying to Germany, they had been planned for a long time, all tickets were bought. Until the last, after all, no one knew that they would close.

There is an hour before the border, and these air passengers are about the fifteenth in line. Theoretically they can have time.

“Here we have time to go through, but what is on the Finnish side,” the woman who got out of the car in front of Minivan sighs nervously. -But the main thing is to go there, from the Finnish side, to twelve. Do you also have a regular visa?

I nod. She explains: two men are traveling in the car in front of them, both of them have a residence permit, they have already boasted.

“There would be no tomorrow to go, so they create a turn here,” she looks unkindly at the rear bumper of “residence permit”. - And we have a house there, we must preserve it when we can go the next time - it is unknown

From the side of the tail awkwardly runs a magnificent blonde in heels.

“We just drove up,” he stops, takes a breath. - And now what, let go? Are you the first time here? What is this barrier? Where is the Soviet border, oh, Russian? Where is the Finnish? We wanted children for ten days, we have them in Sweden. Transit with us. And transit, they say, after twelve will be closed. Will we have time?

In the old Golf, a girl and a young man are sitting.

“We hope to have time,” the young man shrugs phlegmatically, answering the blonde.

“Hope dies last,” the girl nods.

Another car - there are two women, friends.

“We’re going to skate a visa,” laughs at the wheel.

Yes, there was such a type of tourism in St. Petersburg. The Finns gave visas generously, it was believed that among St. Petersburg the most “Schengen” tourists. The main thing is that the first trip is “to Finn”, then it is possible throughout Europe. This was called "skipping a visa."

“Imagine, a month ago they received visas, everyone was going to skate,” the woman continues to have fun. - Today, finally, they have already been gathered after work. And here - hello.

Near the first car, at the barrier itself, a large uncle taps nervously on the hood.

“We have traveled a friend - and it has been there for an hour,” he says. - I had to go through and give a signal. If the Finns hold so much, then we will not go away.

On their car, the rooms of the Moscow region.

“We were traveling from Moscow for 800 kilometers on purpose,” the woman explains. -We are actually in Helsinki, but on a peat there is just an Adishche.

Peat

This is a border post for those who go to Helsinki, to the western part of Finland or further. They loved St. Petersburg to go to Europe on Finnish ferries.

“Damn, it’s not moving at all,” the man in the raincoat looks into the distance, somewhere there-the head of the queue.

I arrived at Peatfyanovka a little after midnight. The Finns already, it seems, had to stop missing tourists. At this time, in line, I counted 65 pieces plus a few dozen meters of cars. My navigator showed that a kilometer is from the tail to the barrier.

“I have five hundred meters,” the raincoat looked at the phone.

His car is Ukrainian numbers.

“Why worry?” - his other driver, also out of the line, soothes him. - You will be missed.

“Yes, it’s unknown,” the man sighs from the Ukrainian car.

“Ours went there closer, now they will come - they will tell you what is being done there,” another, standing further towards the barrier.

“At 12, the Finns lit up the red light and stopped letting it off,” they will hear from someone further.

This roll-call is calmed down from time to time, then someone quits another news, it is transmitted by the chain from the head of the head to the tail to the tail by the impatient people standing near their cars.

-Do not know, the green cards are checked?

- Necessarily. And in Latvia and in Estonia, they still look diagnostic cards.

- I always drove through Latvia, through the loss, and always went through everything in two hours. And in recent months-I somehow even stood seven hours.

- I wanted to go to the Kunich Mountain, this is Estonia. But there are 60, they say, there are cars. I thought it would be less here.

Yesterday, they say, the line was really much smaller in the peat. It decreased when a mobile military enlistment office was put here: having learned about it, many decided to go through a lingonberry, even though the path will turn out more authentic there. But now there is no military registration and enlistment office.

“They made out already,” the young guy nods, who suddenly appeared from somewhere out of the darkness, “stood for two days-today they sorted it out.” Well, it is clear that you can’t go to ordinary visas, it was removed.

Near the car with Finnish numbers it shifts from the foot to the leg of the classic botan with glasses. He holds the hand of a girl with her hair loose to the coccyx. The hair is already completely wet.

“We planned everything in advance,” Botan willingly starts telling. - Then we planned to go to Frankfurt for the exhibition, bought tickets in early September. Armor of hotels - everything is. And in Helsinki for two days the hotel is booked. We still thought: she, they will not have time to accept it so quickly, the European Union, they have not like ours. And here they are just a day a day. Right today, such news. Our bus was booked at 5 in the morning. As a result, we went a day earlier. Our driver is Russian Finn, he has been living there for a long time.

- And how back? I ask.

- Why - back? - It freezes in the midst of a botan, and then thinks that their "Russian Finn" will certainly be missed.

“Let's go with someone who will not be allowed either,” the girl replies cheerfully. “But you have to tune yourself to the good.”

“Yeah,” Botan grimaces. - We spent so much money on all this ...

I carefully ask him about mobilization.

“I can’t go to the call, at least in the first wave,” the guy answers quickly, carefully glancing at me. - I think they should call me later. Somewhere in the second.

- Will you go?

“This is a deep question,” he averts his eyes. - It all depends on the situation in the country when the agenda comes. We came to two in our company. I do not condemn them, but they hid. The most important thing now is to win the time. The situation may change in some direction.

Their car is the eighteenth from the end. I go further to the barrier, I think. The twenty -third also has Moscow numbers. They arrived at 22.15 and were sure that they would be in time. Already the second hour of the night, but they hope.

“Yes, we specially drove from Moscow,” a tired man nods me through the window. - We have a Schengen visa only a week ago. How else to go? Latvia does not give a visa and does not let in. You can, of course, through Istanbul, but how much are tickets. The Finns had to be allowed today. We hope ... I have all relatives in Latvia, I wanted to go there - at least to the graves. They took the plane tickets.

The twenty -ninth is a minibus with sleeping passengers.

“Come on, how it will not be allowed,” laughs a cheerful driver, similar to the postman of Pechkin from the cartoon. - Listen to them more!

Sorokoy from the end, the car is a jeep with the code of the region 49. This is the Magadan region. At the wheel, an old man with a white beard and a tail on the back of the head.

“I have a yacht in Finland,” he nods towards the Finnish border. - Every year I drove by car.

I squeeze my eyes, imagining how he will go back to Magadan through the whole country, never seeing his yacht. No, I'm not fingering, I myself have already spent almost twelve hours behind the wheel, so I sympathize with the Magadans with all my heart.

On the hour of a quarter of the third. From the side of the barrier, a group of men quickly moves towards us, they take the keys to the cars on the move and explain: the border guards decided to divide the queue by the numbers of cars, who with the numbers of the European Union - separately. And the line really moved. There was a rumor that it seems that today they will finally miss everyone.

About four in the morning I went through Russian customs. In the Finnish line, it was approximately twice as long as the one in which I counted the cars. By five in the morning we advanced twenty meters. Towards, back, those who stood in front rode.

Exceptions

Finland closed the border for Russians with the wording (quote for Fontanka ): “At the entrance, persons who are following to Finland or through Finland to other states participating in the Schengen agreement for the purpose of tourism will be denied. In other words, there will be no transit either, Finnish airports for Russians are closed. “The decision will be carried out primarily on the eastern border, but it will also concern Russians who arrive in Finland through other sections of the external border. According to the approximate assessment of the border guard of Finland, as a result of new restrictions, the number of persons arriving in Finland will be reduced approximately by the current level. It will be about 25% of the usual indicators of 2019. ” Real estate owners will also not be able to receive Finnish visas, and those who have a visa so far, can be allowed into the country as an exception.

The list of exceptions includes Russians who live in Finland, close relatives live (it is required to confirm kinship), seasonal workers (a contract is required), cargo transport drivers, sailors, entrepreneurs with confirmed business in Finland, students, patients of Finnish clinics - only if treatment was started before the restrictions, diplomats.