Russian visa centre opens in Helsinki

HELSINKI, April 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia opens its first visa centre
here on Thursday to simplify and speed up visa issuing procedures for
Finnish citizens. Three more such centres will be opened in Finland within
a month.
"The visa centres will be opened in four cities, which have Russian
consulates, i.e. in Helsinki, Turku, Lappeenranta, and in Mariehamn,"
Russian ambassador to Finland Alexander Rumyantsev told Itar-Tass.
In 2010, more than 39,400 Russian visa were issued in Helsinki alone.
The figure for entire Finland was some 170,000. The biggest number of
Russian visas were issued in Turku. The bulk of visas were tourist ones
(more than 24,700 tourist visas were issued in 2010 in Helsinki).
Visa centres in Turku and Lappeenranta are expected to be opened in
early May, and another one will be opened later in May in Mariehamn, the
capital of Aland, an autonomous territory under Finnish sovereignty.