CHOOSE COUNTRY The bus stops behind the boom. A trio steps out: a man, a woman and a little boy. They hold each other’s hand.
Until a moment ago, the family was interrogated by the infamous Russian security service, the FSB. Now they step inside the Vaalimaa border station and tell the border authorities that they are fleeing the war.
Behind is a five-day journey home from Starobilsk in eastern Ukraine. The family’s route passed through Russia. They had to flee to a country that was attacked by their home.
Russia bombed the Ukrainian-held city heavily as soon as the attack began. Last Sunday, Russia took over the city.
– A grenade hit our home and we realized that we had to pack our belongings and leave, says Andrei, the father of the family, in the waiting room at the border station.
Andrei does not want to tell your last name or appear in pictures for security reasons. The journey continues to Sweden with a friend. The bags contain only the most essential items.
President Vladimir Putin the war has also driven many Russians out of the country. Opponents of the regime and journalists are fleeing tightening grips. Everyday life is miserable and the economic collapse is getting closer every day.
Due to interest rate restrictions and visa requirements, it is not easy for Russians to enter Finland. It is easier for dual nationals, such as Franco-Russian With Elena Denier.
He lives in Paris and was visiting his parents in Moscow as well as in the Republic of Buryatia in Siberia. The intention was to fly home, but flights to Europe were canceled.
– I left earlier because I was scared. My husband is in Paris, and this makes him very nervous.
Denier, an 18-year-old daughter, was sent home via Qatar.
According to Denier, the mood in Russia is fearful and depressed. In Moscow, his middle-class acquaintances take care of jobs and savings.
– In Buryatia, on the other hand, people are afraid of being mobilized and their children sent to war, Denier says.
Denier himself is worried about Russia’s political developments and the fact that he doesn’t know when he can see his parents again.
– I am very afraid that the border will be closed.
Vaalimaa is also a route to a safer world for tourists and other European tourists who have found their stay in Russia too awkward.
However, a large part of the Finnish-Russian border cannot be seen with the naked eye.
The border is also invisible in the everyday life of the Lappeenranta family. But television and magazines tell us that something has changed in the eyes of the world. Russia is 27 kilometers from the home of a couple of electrical engineers.
– As a little boy, the border was fascinating but mundane. Now the wooded boundary line there divides good and evil, he thinks Jukka Lassila in his living room.
Lassila’s wife Nadja Belonogova has joined the ranks of volunteers living in Lappeenranta.
The group is assisting Ukrainian refugees arriving at the nearby Nuijamaa border station. Belonogova has bought sim cards, instant porridge, noodles, biscuits and coffee for the refugees waiting at the station. A number of volunteers are just getting organized, so now we can do what we can.
Belonogova is from Moscow, but she has also been from Lappeenranta for 14 years. Russianness is an important thing in a family of four that you want to cherish.
– When Russia attacked, it felt like my identity was shattered, Belonogova says.
That morning he was in a hurry and the news went unread. When he finally had a look on the phone, the news of the Russian attack struck in shock.
– I was deeply ashamed even though I know that war is not the fault of our ordinary people.
He has repeated the same to his children. Belonogova and Lassila’s 8- and 10-year-olds have been talked about as directly as possible.
Friends of Belonogova on the other side of the border live in a different reality. The old classmates don’t seem to know the whole truth and are trying to understand everyone – including Putin.
Belonogova herself was not interested in politics for years. He says he lived in the fog.
– When I watched TV as a little girl, I didn’t understand what the thugs were talking about there. Even the parents did not explain things.
It is now important for Belonogova that children understand what politics is all about. What is a party and what is democracy.
About four percent of Lappeenranta’s residents are Russian-speaking. Jukka Lassila believes that the city already has an atmosphere where people are seen as people. The Kremlin is far from here.
– Nature has not made a limit. Nature continues to be the same on both sides.
Between Finland and Russia the boundary is 1343.6 kilometers long. It runs from the Gulf of Finland all the way to the Lapland wilderness in some places straight and sometimes meandering.
Before that, people went shopping over it, or crossed it east to the bustling metropolis of St. Petersburg. For two years the border has been quiet. Now there will be more people wanting out. There are seven border crossing points open for passenger traffic, of which Vaalimaa is the southernmost.
Traveling home to Berlin Olga trying to keep her son awake in the Vaalimaa waiting room. The bus picks up the passengers again, as long as everyone has gone through the border formalities.
– Don’t sleep, we’ll be on the bus again, Olga promises to the child.
The duo has been traveling for another day. They were meeting Olga’s parents, who live in Nizhny Novgorod.
– We did not plan to travel through Finland. The intention was to fly from Moscow, Olga says.
Direct flights between Europe and Russia have been cut off. Routes circulating through the Middle East or Central Asia can cost thousands of euros and flights are canceled all the time. The bus is the only option for many.
It is safe in Finland, but fear follows. Russia has enacted a speedy new law that threatens to disseminate “false news” about the war, that is, information that deviates from the official line, with up to 15 years in prison.
– I didn’t say anything against the government. We will probably not be sent back.
Olga laughs, but the comment is descriptive. Many Russians do not know what to fear now.