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Geopolitics

Finland May Ban Tourist Visas For Russians In New Move By Nordic Neighbor

Finland has recently joined Sweden in seeking NATO membership in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Now Finnish politicians say they also support blocking Russian tourists from coming across the 1,340-km-long border the two countries share. It would be a bold move.

Border between Finland and Russia​

Border between Finland and Russia

Johannes Jauhiainen

HELSINKI — For Russians, particularly the rising middle class in and around the city of Saint Petersburg, Finland has become a favorite travel destination. The capital Helsinki is only a three-and-half hour train ride away, the scenic Finnish lakeside town of Imatra sits across the border from Svetogorsk and Russian skiers flock to Lapland mountain resorts each winter.

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But this tourist traffic may be about to vanish as a growing number of Finnish politicians are calling for restrictions on visas, a move that would broaden the scope of the sanctions against Russia to target ordinary people in addition to state enterprises, public officials and Oligarchs.

Such a clampdown would also come after the historic decision of Finland, which shares a 1,340 kilometer (830 mile) border with Russia, to seek NATO membership (alongside Sweden) in response to the invasion of Moscow’s southern neighbor, Ukraine.


On Monday a majority of political parties in Finland stated that they would be in favor of putting a temporary freeze on tourist visas for Russians. This would align Finland with Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which have already stopped processing tourist visas. It would also bring Finnish policy closer to that of Norway, another Nordic country sharing a land border with Russia, which tightened its visa regulations for Russian tourists in June.

Support across political spectrum

Support for such a move has been expressed by parliamentary groups across the political spectrum, From the nationalist Finns Party to the moderate conservative National Coalition party to the greens and the Social Democrats who are currently the biggest party in government and hold the Prime Minister post.

It can be seen as a kind of “soft power” flipside of the decision of Finland (alongside Sweden) to join the NATO military alliance, which is awaiting final Parliamentary approval.

For Finland, suspending tourist visas would be a bold move, with significant economic consequences: before the COVID-19 pandemic, Russians made up the biggest source of tourism in the country.

Since Finland lifted some of the travel restrictions brought on by the pandemic, Russian eagerness to visit their Western neighbour has picked up quickly, with 10,520 visas granted for Russian tourists in the first three weeks of July this year, according to the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

building of the Consulate-General of Finland in St Petersburg.

Consulate-General of Finland in St Petersburg

Alexander Demianchuk/TASS/ZUMA

A transit country to Europe

Some Finnish politicians, including Acting Prime Minister Steering Tytti Tuppurainen, have looked to quell such an immediate visa suspension. In an interview with Finnish dailyIltalehti, Leena Liukkonen from the consular services at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs said until now the aim was that “sanctions do not target ordinary people.” But Liukkonen added that any changes to the visa policies will be made by politicians.

Finland should not be a transit country.

A temporary freeze on visas may also affect other European countries, as Russians use Finland as a point of entry to the EU before continuing their journey to other European holiday destinations, according to Finland’s biggest daily newspaperHelsingin Sanomat.

The issue of being a transit country has also raised questions within the government as the Minister of Justice, Anna-Maja Henriksson stated that while she could not yet support a temporary freeze on tourist visas without having examined the proposal in greater detail “Finland should not be a transit country.”

The visa issue is one more sign that the relationship between the two neighbors has fundamentally changed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Interviewed last week on Russian television, Moscow’s ambassador to Finland Pavel Kuznetsov was more focused on the threats on the soft power front, including Finland’s ending cooperation on economic, scientific, educational, cultural and sports, as well as the connections have been lost between sister cities and among civil society organizations.

"Finns,” Kuznetsov said, “used to be good friends until not that long ago and now they have cut all cooperation." When the Finnish Parliament reconvenes in September, we will see if the next step will be cutting off ordinary Russian visitors too.

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Society

How Brazil's Evangelical Surge Threatens Survival Of Native Afro-Brazilian Faith

Followers of the Afro-Brazilian Umbanda religion in four traditional communities in the country’s northeast are resisting pressure to convert to evangelical Christianity.

image of Abel José, an Umbanda priest

Abel José, an Umbanda priest

Agencia Publica
Géssica Amorim

Among a host of images of saints and Afro-Brazilian divinities known as orixás, Abel José, 42, an Umbanda priest, lights some candles, picks up his protective beads and adjusts the straw hat that sits atop his head. He is preparing to treat four people from neighboring villages who have come to his house in search of spiritual help and treatment for health ailments.

The meeting takes place discreetly, in a small room that has been built in the back of the garage of his house. Abel lives in the quilombo of Sítio Bredos, home to 135 families. The community, located in the municipality of Betânia of Brazil’s northeastern state of Pernambuco, is one of the municipality’s four remaining communities that have been certified as quilombos, the word used to refer to communities formed in the colonial era by enslaved Africans and/or their descendents.

In these villages there are almost no residents who still follow traditional Afro-Brazilian religions. Abel, Seu Joaquim Firmo and Dona Maura Maria da Silva are the sole remaining followers of Umbanda in the communities in which they live. A wave of evangelical missionary activity has taken hold of Betânia’s quilombos ever since the first evangelical church belonging to the Assembleia de Deus group was built in the quilombo of Bredos around 20 years ago. Since then, other evangelical, pentecostal, and neo-pentecostal churches and congregations have established themselves in the area. Today there are now nine temples spread among the four communities, home to roughly 900 families.

The temples belong to the Assembleia de Deus, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and the World Church of God's Power, the latter of which has over 6,000 temples spread across Brazil and was founded by the apostle and televangelist Valdemiro Santiago, who became infamous during the pandemic for trying to sell beans that he had blessed as a Covid-19 cure. Assembleia de Deus alone, who are the largest pentecostal denomination in the world, have built five churches in Betânia’s quilombos.


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