Immigration officers at Storskog, Norway’s only land-border checkpoint to Russia, do no longer experiences the endless queues seen only a few months back in time. Normally, Saturday’s are peak-hours with Russians crossing for shopping in Kirkenes, a few kilometers west of the borderline.
The number of crossing sank in January by more than 10,000 compared with a year earlier.
“Of the 19.661 crossings were 3.411 made by Norwegians traveling without visa and 1.795 were Russians without visa,” says Stein Kristian Hansen with the local police in an e-mail to BarentsObserver.
The two countries in 2012 introduced visa-freedom for locals living within a zone of 30 to 50 kilometers from the borderline on each side. Travelers coming from outside this zone, or for locals traveling longer than the zone allows, a normal visa is needed.
Visa-freedom is also the reason why more Norwegians are crossing today than a year ago. With the local border permit people in Kirkenes can drive to the nearby city of Nikel, fill up gas for one third of the price at home.
New checkpoints in pipe
Some 500 more crossings were made by Norwegians in January compared with a year ago.
Despite the sharp drop in January, both Norway and Russia will construct new border checkpoints. Speaking at the annual Kirkenes conference on Wednesday, Murmansk Governor Marina Kovtun said construction work at Borisoglebsk will start this year.
The Russian checkpoint gets financial support from the joint Russian, EU financing mechanism Kolarctic, while the Norwegian checkpoint at Storskog is still awaiting cash from the Norwegian Government.
Until last autumn, the number of crossings increased steadily year-by-year all since 2009.
