Train connections from St. Petersburg to Helsinki have been fully booked since the Russian invasion. Because of the Ukraine war and the sanctions against Russia, more Russians are being drawn to the EU country. But the fear of Putin’s arbitrariness also plays a role.
Helsinki is the destination: The train connection from St. Petersburg to the Finnish capital is one of the last ways for Russians to get to the EU after European airspace was closed to Russian planes because of the Ukraine invasion. Russians working or studying in the EU seize this opportunity – and the trains are fully booked for the next few days.
“We decided to return as soon as possible because we don’t know what the situation will be like next week,” says Polina Poliakova, who is studying in Paris. The Muscovite arrived in Helsinki on the Allegro express train at 6:40 a.m. Her friend Beata Jukhtanova, who is also studying in Paris, accompanied her. Traveling is now difficult for Russians “because everything has been cancelled,” she says.
Demand for tickets to Helsinki has increased enormously
While the Allegro trains have recently traveled largely empty from St. Petersburg to Helsinki due to the corona pandemic, they are now “fully booked for the next few days,” says Topi Simola from the Finnish railway company VR. “We can tell from the luggage they have with them that people are really moving,” says the VR manager.
Passenger numbers on the east-west route began to surge on Saturday, two days after Russia invaded Ukraine. On the other hand, the occupancy rate for the trains back to St. Petersburg is only 30 percent.
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The Finnish railways even have to expand their train connection from Russia’s St. Petersburg to the capital Helsinki because more and more Russians want to leave their country. Thousands have already arrived in Finland, and in addition to the Allegro express train, the buses on the approximately 400-kilometer route between St. Petersburg and Helsinki are also full, the Finnish television channel Yle reported on Saturday.
Few Russians can purchase a ticket
Many feared that Russia could be placed under martial law and the borders would be closed, the Finnish broadcaster reported. Russia and Finland are neighboring countries and share a border of around 1,300 kilometers. According to Russian agencies, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that he currently sees no conditions for the declaration of martial law in Russia. He is also not planning a state of emergency. He countered the fears of many Russians.
“We are trying to offer several additional trips on several days in the next week,” said a spokesman for Finnish Railways. “The trains in the opposite direction are practically empty,” he added.
However, only a few Russians can get a seat in the Allegro, most of the passengers are Finns. Because Russian passengers not only need a valid Schengen visa, but also a corona vaccination with a vaccine approved in the EU. So Russians immunized with Russian vaccines like Sputnik V are not allowed to drive the Allegro.
“A lot of people are panicking”
Most Russian passengers are already resident in the EU, such as 14-year-old Maria and her mother Svetlana, who want to return to Austria. After their flight was canceled on Sunday, the two were at a loss as to how to get back home. “At first we thought we’d have to go through Turkey, but that’s a lot more expensive than Finland,” says Maria.
VR, which operates the route together with Russian Railways, would like to open the connection to non-Finnish EU citizens and increase capacity. “We know that there are still tens of thousands of EU citizens in Russia and we assume that many of them would like to return home,” says Simola.
Russians who have returned to Finland describe that there is great uncertainty in Russia at the moment because of the war against Ukraine and the harsh reactions from the West in the form of a large number of sanctions. “A lot of people are panicking,” says Daria, who returned to her place of study in Helsinki earlier than originally planned.
Many feel “not safe” in Russia
“I know people who are desperately trying to go abroad at the moment,” agrees Elena, who works in Finland. She had rebooked her flight home from Moscow to Finland on Thursday a week ago, when the Russian army began invading Ukraine, and returned to the Scandinavian country on the same day.
Many of her compatriots don’t feel “safe” in Russia, says Elena, who prefers not to give her last name. “You know that the economic situation will be very difficult from now on, and many people cannot bear to stay for moral reasons.”
For the time being, Elena has burned all bridges to Russia behind her. “I don’t plan to return to Russia anytime soon, that’s for sure,” says the 37-year-old. But even if the situation in her home country is extremely difficult, it is “impossible to compare it with the current horrors in Ukraine”.
Source: Stern
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