Finland announced investigation of 88 cases of forgery of residence permit cards by Russians

The Border Guard of South-Eastern Finland has identified 350 cases of forged border crossing stamps by Russians. This is reported by the TV channel Yle with reference to the director of investigations of the border guard of South-East Finland, Mika Vilkko.

It is specified that 88 cases of forgery of residence permit cards in the EU countries by Russian citizens are currently being investigated. The channel notes that the number of fakes in 2022 has increased significantly compared to previous years.

The Finnish border service reported that most of the people who were found to have fake documents come from the North Caucasus.

At the same time, the department said that they did not have exact data on how many Russians are currently in Finland and other countries of the Schengen zone. It is noted that up to 7,000 people could cross the border on the busiest days.

Border stamps are needed in order to record how many days a person has spent in the EU. A multiple-entry tourist visa allows a third-country national to enter the Commonwealth territory several times, while he can spend no more than 90 days in the Schengen countries. The representative of the Finnish border service, Matti Pitkäniitti, suggested that thousands of Russians could now be illegally in the EU countries.

In early November, the FSB of the Russian Federation informedthat over the past three months, 430,000 trips were made from Russia to Finland, which is 187% more than in the same period last year.

At the same time, getting a Schengen visa and getting into Finland has become more difficult. On September 12, the European Union suspended the simplified visa regime with Russia. In addition, from September 30, Finland does not accept Russians with a tourist visa. This measure will remain in effect until further notice from the government.

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