Just after 7pm on Sunday, the Allegro express train from St Petersburg pulled into the Finnish capital, Helsinki, marking the closure of the last rail link between Russia and the EU.
Finnish railway operator VR on Friday announced that it was suspending the Allegro service, which since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been regularly sold-out by Russians eager to get out before Western sanctions make leaving all but impossible.
“Now that I’ve picked up my cats I don’t have a reason to go back, I have everything that’s most valuable to me,” said Alex, who got off the train wheeling a case containing his two long-haired pets.
Photo: AFP
The Muscovite who has lived for some years in Helsinki gave only his first name.
“The situation in Russia has become more complicated,” said university student Ivan, who was traveling with his mother from Moscow where he studies back to his home in Portugal for the Easter holiday.
He is due to return to the Russian capital for his exams in a few weeks.
“I can’t tell how I’m going to get back to Moscow, we’ll see how this situation gets resolved,” he said.
Despite a lack of official statistics, thousands of Russians are reported to have left their nation since the invasion.
With airspace closures grounding direct flights to Europe, those wishing to leave Russia have turned to flights via Turkey and Belgrade, or to road and rail.
Since the Feb. 24 invasion, about 700 passengers a day have packed the trains to Finland, with the service remaining open at the request of the Finnish authorities to allow Finns in Russia to exit the nation if they wanted.
However, on Thursday the government informed VR that “operating the service was no longer appropriate” in light of the heavy sanctions against Russia, and all trains were canceled from yesterday.
Run jointly by Finland and Russia’s national railways, the cross-border Allegro train was a symbol of partnership between the two nations when it opened in 2010.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Finnish president Tarja Halonen traveled on the inaugural service, which cut travel times on the 400km journey between Helsinki and St Petersburg by two to three-and-a-half hours.
“I hope it will operate normally again very soon,” said Aliya, in her late 50s, who works in Helsinki, but regularly visits her friends and family in St Petersburg.
The interruption of the service would make life more difficult, but “people will find a way to make the journey anyway if they have the opportunity,” she said.
Although many Russians have reportedly sought to leave since the start of the war, the Allegro link to Helsinki has only been open to a select few. Moscow stipulates that passengers must be Russian or Finnish citizens, and a visa is required as well as proof of an EU-recognized COVID-19 vaccination — not the Sputnik dose which is most commonly given in Russia.
Most passengers arriving in the Finnish capital have therefore been Russians who live, work or study in Europe.
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