The last “Allegro” train from Saint Petersburg is due to arrive at Helsinki station on Sunday.
The Finnish railway company VR announced on Friday the interruption of traffic on the line which allowed Russians to reach the European Union.
Despite European sanctions against Moscow after the invasion of Ukraine and the closure of most air and land connections, the connection had been maintained to allow Finnish or Russian citizens - the only nationalities authorized to board - to leave Russia .
"So far, we have continued the Allegro service in accordance with official recommendations, in order to ensure the return of Finns to Finland", underlined Topi Simola, vice-president of VR, while many EU countries had quickly closed their airspace.
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The Finnish government now believes that sufficient time has been given and that “operating the service is no longer appropriate” in view of the sanctions against Russia.
Trains, long crowded in the first weeks after the invasion of Ukraine with 700 passengers a day, have shown more normal occupancy rates in recent days, around 60%, according to VR.
Conditions too drastic?
Is it due to the conditions always imposed by any EU country?
Only Russians who already had a European Schengen visa and an anti-Covid vaccine recognized by the European Union could take the Allegro train.
Already settled elsewhere in Europe or leaving Russia, thousands of Russians - in the absence of official statistics - left their country after the invasion, in particular to Turkey.
A rail link with 100 trains per month also connects the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad to the rest of Russia via the territory of Lithuania which had built a wall along the enclave, but Russian citizens in transit are not allowed to get off during its stop in Vilnius.