Russia closes the Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg
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Russia will close the Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg. The consent to his activity will be revoked from October 1, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia announced.
Earlier on Thursday, it became known that the ambassador of Finland was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. A “resolute protest because of the anti-Russian policy of Helsinki” was declared to him.
The Russian side claims that the “parameters of Finland’s accession to NATO” pose a threat to its security. Moscow threatens to retaliate for “infusing Kiev with Western weapons”, TASS quotes the statement of the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova.
The Russian Foreign Ministry also declared persona non grata nine Finnish diplomatic representatives – employees of the embassy and consulate general. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs called this a response measure to the expulsion from Finland of nine representatives of Russian institutions abroad.
At the end of May, Russia withdrew its consent to the operation of the Petrozavodsk and Murmansk branches of the Consulate General of Finland in St. Petersburg from July 1, and also announced the closure of its embassy office in the Finnish city of Lappeenranta.
Moscow placed the responsibility for this decision on Helsinki, where, according to the department, they took a “confrontational course” in relation to Russia, stopped air traffic and prohibited the entry of tourists.
Finland may close the Russian consulate in Turku, the Finnish president said. He called it a response measure to the closure of the consulate in St. Petersburg.
- On April 27, Russia froze the accounts of Finland’s diplomatic missions in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
- In January, it became known that Finland had frozen Russian assets worth 187 million euros. This was done as part of the sanctions imposed on Russia due to the military invasion of Ukraine.
- Since September 2022, Finland, like many other European countries, has halved the issuance of visas for Russians.
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