Report

Finland: Russians still join the EU by the Saint Petersburg-Helsinki train

Helsinki train station, March 3, 2022. This is one of the few remaining routes from Russia to the EU: the train.

AFP - ALESSANDRO RAMPAZZO

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

Ukrainians are fleeing Ukraine, but Russians are also fleeing Russia.

While flights to Europe are suspended, they still have a fast, safe and inexpensive way to reach it.

This is the train that connects Saint Petersburg to Helsinki, Finland.

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With our special correspondent in Helsinki,

Frédéric Faux

Twice a day, the Allegro fast train arrives from St. Petersburg, after three and a half hours of travel.

On the quay, very few families or friends came to pick up the passengers.

Because most are in transit.

Helsinki is first and foremost the easiest way, and one of the only remaining ones, to leave Russia and reach Europe.

And this 50-year-old who is dragging two large suitcases behind him does not hide the reasons for his departure: “ 

Putin is shit,

” he says.

We go to Latvia, we live there.

 »

►Read again: Finns and Swedes now in favor of joining NATO

The train is reserved for those who hold a Russian or Finnish passport.

You also need a visa, a vaccination passport.

Russians who can borrow it are therefore privileged, like Sara, who lives partly in the Netherlands.

For her, the anxiety is not over: “ 

We are also expecting part of our family who is Ukrainian, they will come to us in the Netherlands.

There they fled to Poland.

 »

"Welcome", "peace and love" addressed to Russian people arriving in the European Union by train from St. Petersburg, at Helsinki station on March 6.

AFP - EMMI KORHONEN

Some of these Russians plan to return.

Others not, this is the case of Alexei.

This computer developer, accompanied by his fiancée, wants to set sail for Spain.

We don't feel safe in our own country.

You can go to jail for nothing in Russia.

We don't plan to come back

The Finnish authorities would like to run more trains, open to all Europeans, but the Russians have still not responded to these requests.

►Read also: In Ukraine, the inhabitants try to flee the city of Irpin under the bombs

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