Russia-Norway cross-border traffic up 20 per cent
2019 could be the first year since 2015 with an increase in travelers across the Russian, Norwegian land border in the north.
By the end of November, 238,711 border crossings took place, according to figures by the Norwegian police in charge of passport control at Storskog checkpoint.
The increase in November was 20,7 percent compared with the same month last year.
For the first 11 months of 2019, 4,6 percent more border crossings took place compared with the same period of 2018.
While the number of border crossings is substantially up between Russia and Norway, the increase across the two northernmost checkpoints from the Kola Peninsula to Finnish Lapland is also up, but just a few hundreds compared with the same month last year, figures from Finland’s Border Guard shows.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Fearing issues at U.S. border, Canada’s western Inuit put stop to cannabis sales in Arctic town, CBC News
Finland: Finland to upgrade Arctic border-crossing point to welcome more traffic from northern Russia, The Independent Barents Observer
Norway: Sliding Russian ruble brings down cross-border traffic with Norway, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: Fewer Russians doing cross-border shopping in Northern Norway, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Sweden’s security service now screens all who apply for residency, Radio Sweden
