“Now I believe that your status does not matter. If you are able to serve today, tomorrow you can be in the army”, explains to AFP Viktor Zakharov, a 35-year-old scientist, one of the few to accept to give their full name.
Coming from Saint Petersburg, he, his wife and their three children have just crossed the checkpoint, where the passages of Russian citizens have doubled since Vladimir Putin’s “partial” mobilization order last Wednesday.
“The feeling of freedom is not there yet, because of sleepless nights and time spent packing,” says the young father, his features drawn. After a stopover in Finland with friends, he intends to set sail for Israel.
Like him, they are now 7 to 8,000 to cross the long land border of about 1,300 kilometers each day, most of them at the Vaalima crossing, the southernmost.
Its gray porticoes have become one of the places of transit for thousands of Russians heading for exile, as elsewhere in Georgia, Kazakhstan or Turkey.
For Oleg, a bar owner in Moscow, most of those who leave the country like him flee before the “frightening” specter of being stuck.
They fear “that it will close forever and that it will be over, they will have to live in a totalitarian state where they will not be able to do anything”, he said without wanting to show his face in front of the AFP camera.
For this 36-year-old man, the mobilization order is only the “first sign” of a border closure, which he anticipates in the coming days.
There is not only the risk coming from the Kremlin of no longer being able to leave the country: faced this summer with a wave of Russian “tourists”, Finland is preparing to prevent the passage of Russians with Schengen tourist visas.
That is a large part of those who come to its doors.
The Finnish government is due to discuss the entry into force of the measure on Thursday.
– “At least I’m here” –
“I can’t say I’m happy,” said Vadim, a civil servant from Moscow who came by bus. “But at least I’m here”.
He left his mother and his apartment, but hopes to be able to return to Russia later.
“I was worried about being able to cross the border because I heard about a lot of young men who were taken by force and couldn’t leave because of the mobilization”, he says before resuming the because.
Current queues remain manageable, according to Finnish border guards, but have been growing significantly over the past week.
“Currently, this is the biggest crossing point from Russia to Finland,” said Jesse Pirttinen, a border guard lieutenant.
Before the Covid, 2.5 million passages were recorded each year in Vaalimaa, a number which fell to 250,000 during the pandemic.
“Now we have reached 90% of the 2019 level, so it’s almost like three years ago,” says the officer.
But the new restrictions on the Finnish or Russian side could mean more attempts to cross the border illegally.
Alongside its historic bid to join NATO, Helsinki has presented a plan to strengthen its eastern border.
