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The Finnish-Russian Civic Forum strives to promote cooperation between the peoples of Finland and Russia by supporting civic initiatives for democracy, human rights, and freedom of speech.
Mending the Mirror
The Finnish-Russian media conference, “Broken Mirrors,” will open on 3 December 2012 in the main building of the Finnish Parliament in Helsinki. The conference is being organised in cooperation with the Parliament’s Russia Friendship Group.
The Finnish-Russian Civic Forum wishes to extend its warm welcome to all participants at the conference and a special thanks to the event’s sponsors. For those not able to attend the event, we will be tweeting and facebooking the conference.
Broken Mirrors | Helsinki 3-4 December 2012
The Finnish-Russian media conference, “Broken Mirrors,” will be held in the Auditorium of the Finnish Parliament on 3-4 December 2012. The conference will discuss two main themes: Russia’s and Finland’s image in the media, and the question of visa-free travel between the EU and Russia. The organisers note that such a meeting of Finnish and Russian journalists has not been held since the middle of the 1990s.
The conference will be organised by the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum (FINROSFORUM), the Finland-Russia Society, the EU-Russia Civil Society Forum, the Union of Journalists in Finland, the Finnish online newspaper Uusi Suomi, the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, and the Russian Union of Journalists, the Union of Journalists in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast, and the Russian news agency, ITAR-TASS.
Finnish MPs for Sanctions in Magnitsky Case
A group of leading members of the Finnish Parliament, spearheaded by the National Coalition Party’s MP, Pia Kauma, submitted a written question to the government on the question of sanctions against Russian officials involved in the murder of the Russian lawyer, Sergey Magnitsky. So far, the United States and the Netherlands have imposed visa bans on the officials. Moreover, the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have urged member states to freeze the assets of the officials involved and impose international visa bans.
FINROSFORUM 2012 | “Broken Mirrors”
Prisoner of Princess Maria
A Cuban architect was forced to spend 47 days on a ferry cruising between St Petersburg and Helsinki. Luis Vladimir Vega Cespedes, a 41-year old Cuban, was stuck in no-man’s land because of two minor violations of Russian migration legislation, while he was unable to enter Finland because his Schengen visa had expired.
Visa-free travel to double border traffic
Removing the visa requirement for travel between the European Union and Russia would bring millions of new visitors from Russia to Finland, according to a report compiled the Finnish Customs, the Finnish Border Guard, and the Finnish Police. The report estimates that traffic on Finland’s eastern border would increase from the current 8 million to around 15 million border crossings per year, Helsingin Sanomat reports.
Finland top among Russian tourists
Finland expects to receive a record number of Russian tourists in summer 2011. “Russia’s GDP growth was 4% in 2010 and is expected to reach 4.5% in 2011. This can be seen in traffic, tourism, and shopping tours,” Finland’s ambassador to Moscow, Matti Anttonen, says.
The number of trips Russians made abroad increased by more than 30% in 2010. The most popular destination was Finland, with 3.3 million visits by Russian tourists. Turkey came in second with around 3 million visits, and Egypt was third with around 2.5 million visits in 2010.
Lavrov: Visa-free travel in 2011
Russia and the EU will move closer to introducing a visa-free travel regime this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. "We have an agreement to compile a list of problems to be solved before introducing a visa-free regime. We expect to deal with those issues by the end of this year, or at least to be actively dealing with them," Lavrov said.
Lavrov stressed that he saw no technical or organizational hindrances for the introduction of a visa-free regime between Russia and the EU. He also urged that the issue not be politicized by Russia's European partners. Russia and the EU in their joint summit in December agreed to take concrete steps towards visa-free travel, BarentsObserver reported. The Kremlin has made visa-free travel between Russia and the EU a foreign policy priority. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has repeatedly declared his country's readiness to scrap the visa regime with the EU. However, the EU has been deadlocked over the issue amid concerns that a visa-free regime could lead to a rise in crime and illegal immigration. http://en.rian.ru/world/20110113/162126874.htmlNo visas between EU, Russia in 2020?
The leaders of Russia, Germany, and France issued a joint statement paving the way for a visa-free agreement between Russia and the European Union. Dmitry Medvedev, Angela Merkel, and Nicolas Sarkozy expressed the hope that the Russia-EU summit in December 2010 would see progress in bilateral talks on scrapping visas. “We will work with Russia in an atmosphere of trust especially on the issue of visas,” Sarkozy told a press conference after talks with Medvedev and Merkel. He said visas between Russia and EU could be abolished in 10-15 years. Medvedev said the process should have its “road map.”
Moscow has made visa-free travel between Russia and the EU a foreign policy priority. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov rebuked the EU in late September 2010 for dragging its heels on the issue, saying that Russia wanted a “clear answer.” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi backed the plan in July 2010, but said several EU countries opposed it. Finland’s Foreign Minister, Alexander Stubb, has also expressed Finnish support for visa-free travel between the EU and Russia. Russia submitted a draft agreement on scrapping visas at the Russia-EU summit held in Rostov-on-Don on 31 May 2010. http://en.rian.ru/world/20101019/161010463.htmlFinland for visa-free regime between EU and Russia
Finland will step up the push for a full visa-free regime between the European Union and Russia, Finland’s Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb indicated in an article published in Russia’s Vedomosti daily. Mr Stubb, who is on an official visit to Moscow, said abolishing the need for visas for Russian nationals depended on Russia’s removal of the obligatory registration of foreign visitors and easing the rules on work permits to foreigners. Russia has called for a visa-free regime with the EU for years. Finland issues more visas to Russian citizens than any other EU country.
“Finland had no difficulty [in joining the Schengen Agreement], given that the Nordic countries had abolished the need for passports in cross-border travel back in 1952. The free movement of people is an integral part of the vision of the future that Finland strives towards as a member of the European Union,” Mr Stubb wrote. “The question of simplified procedures for border crossing with Russia, our biggest neighbour, is especially important for Finland. […] Finland wants a visa-free regime between the EU and Russia. We will do our utmost to reach this goal.” http://www.vedomosti.ru/newspaper/article/2010/03/09/227483
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