Three days processing of visa-applications is history. “Always apply at least 15 days prior to scheduled departure. Our processing time is 10 days,” says Marit Egholm Jacobsen, head of the visa section at Norway’s Consulate General in Murmansk.
“The future is a joint Norwegian – Russian checkpoint for crossing the border – located at the very border line at Storskog-Boris Gleb,” writes former Head of Police in Eastern Finnmark Håkon Skulstad in this opinion.
Visa-freedom for local inhabitants in the border area becomes a great success. Traffic of people from the Kirkenes area crossing the border has doubled over the last five months.
Norway’s new conservative government presented its political platform on Monday promising extended opening hours and better capacity at Storskog border check-point to Russia.
Norway’s General Consulate plans to keep its doors open for people applying for border citizen certificates, without them having to take a day off from work.
“Longer opening, better capacity at Storskog” was promised in the political platform by Norway’s new coalition government last autumn. Not so any more.
How come that the Barents and the Balkan regions have nearly the same average life expectancy, but their GDPs are dramatically different? BarentsObserver compares two border regions trying to find an answer.
Andrey Vokuev in Naryan-Mar fears for the cooperation between indigenous peoples. Next week, applicants from the Nenets tundra will have to fly to Arkhangelsk to give fingerprints to get a Schengen visa.
Russian vehicles might in the near future have to pay up to 2200 EUR per year for using Finnish roads. Finnish government officials say the measure is meant to alleviate problems with heavy traffic and backlogs on main roads in south-eastern Finland.
