Hallo! Ich habe verschiedene Videos über die Folgen der vollständigen Schließung der Grenze seit November 2023 gesehen. Ich finde es interessant – es sind die Folgen des Krieges, an die viele Menschen nicht denken. Zumindest hier in Dänemark, wo ich herkomme.
Soweit ich weiß, wurde es geschlossen, weil Russland Migranten als Waffen einsetzte und Einwanderer über die Grenze schickte/schleuste (obwohl Russland dies bestreitet). So wie wir es in Weißrussland gesehen haben.
Einige dieser Städte, wie Imatra, besuchten früher viele russische Touristen. Sie geben hier viel Geld aus. Aber jetzt sind sie weg und damit auch ihr Geld. Die Folge sind Ladenschließungen – soweit ich weiß.
Ich bin Fotojournalist aus Dänemark. Hier hört man davon nicht viel. Für uns ist es leicht zu sagen: „Natürlich sollten sie diese Grenze schließen!“ – aber wir hatten nie Russland als Nachbarn.
Hat jemand Input/Einblicke zu diesem Thema? Die Grenzstädte und das Leben hier nach der Schließung. Andere Konsequenzen, wie zum Beispiel, dass Familie/Freunde sich vielleicht nicht sehen können?
Lebt jemand in einer Stadt wie Imatra? Das kann die Situation bestätigen oder näher erläutern?
Oder vielleicht Gedanken über die Schließung der Grenze im Allgemeinen.
Ich freue mich auf Ihre Erkenntnisse!!!
https://i.redd.it/7jtlkrukcujg1.jpeg
Von AutomaticDay3059
10 Kommentare
Russians also used to spend money inland, but it was mainly the oligarchs.
I live in Kajaani, near the border, but not a border town. We used to have Russians shopping here and us Finns buying cheap gasoline from there. It was a symbiotic relationship. Now we don’t get any Russians here and the economy has suffered.
Ruck Fussia!
The whole Finlands‘ GDP benefitted about 10% from Russian trade/travel/ect. Now take that away and you got problems in your economy.
Absolutely some damage has been caused but the border closing was not really up to Finland as Russia used it as a tool to damage Finland. The damage they would have been able to cause surpasses the damage closing has caused.
First of all, there is no proof that migrants were orchestrated. It is possible, but not certain.
What is certain is that Russia stopped checking travellers documents on the way to the border. There is no obligation or any document saying that Russia must perform the checks. I mean documents that allow entering EU. Russia still checks internal documents.
For instance, Finland has never checked documents for entering Russia they only check their internal documents, the same now does Russia.
It’s obviously not great for a town like Imatra. Nationwide, there’s overwhelming support for the closure of the border.
I think the saddest consequences are probably for the numerous Finns of Russian descent who have family in Russia. And can also be problematic for e.g. many of Russian middle class from St. Petersburg, Viborg or other nearby towns, who sometimes have vacation homes in Finland. It hasn’t been unusual for Russians to place a lot of their life savings in a Finnish property, due to our strong legal protections for private property.
I must admit I went to check your profile to verify the „Danish photojournalist“ claim. This sub has seen numerous extremely dubious posts where people claim to be „just curious“ about topics like the border but also NATO membership, support for Ukraine, etc.
Yep, Russia using 3rd country migrants/asylym seekers in 2023 caused Finland to close the border. Or, that was the final straw at least.
Cities/towns next to Russian border have suffered economically from the closure. Important to note though that it didn’t start in 2023 when border was closed – there was different covid restrictions in tourism between 2020-2022. And then Finland limited visas to Russian tourists in 2022. So the situation in Finland-Russia border has been abnormal since 2020.
About tourism, in eastern Finland Russians have been large group. This is true. Tourism to Helsinki, Tampere, Turku, hasn’t suffered, because there’s been plenty of people coming from all around. In Lapland, number of foreign tourists has been breaking records lately.
So there has been effect for sure, in eastern Finland especially, in tourism sector there and places like Imatra. Not anything that disastrous, but clearly visible. In other places in Finland, no effect really, and in Lapland tourism is booming.
There hasn’t really been discussion about opening of the border at all. Closing the border has a strong popular support. I don’t opening it is happening in the middle of Ukraine war. And there is a risk that tensions won’t decrease even after that (after a some sort of peace deal), if Russia continues to use different hybrid operations or pressure. Although I expect that relations return to cool-neutral after that, and border would be opened to traffic again.
Border closure is based, and if I would be the one deciding, it would be made permanent. Or at least permanent for the duration of the current regime. If something big changes we could revisit the issue.
Great to see the business owners adjust to the changes instead of just letting their business die off, unfortunately this costs money and some won’t be able to make that transition.