Online publication Uusi Suomi covers the local fallout from the decision to restrict tourist visas for Russian citizens.
While most residents in the border town of Virolahti—which has a crossing point in the village of Vaalimaa—understood the decision taken by the government, they told the newspaper that they are suffering from the consequences.
A large portion of Vaalimaa's economy had been catered towards Russian tourists looking to shop in the EU. While the Finnish frontier town had been suffering since the Covid pandemic as restrictions cut down tourism, traffic queues at the border are nonexistent these days.
Two of the large shopping malls in Vaalimaa that benefited from border tourism are the Scandinavian Shopping Centre and luxury oriented Zsar Outlet Village, located a little over half a kilometre from the border checkpoint. Now their shops are notably deserted.
Kaisa Hänninen, a retail manager at the Zsar Outlet Village shared her thoughts with Uusi Suomi.
"I don't take a position on the visa issue itself, but I feel that the business community in Vaalimaa and South-East Finland in general has been a victim. It's as if the rug has been pulled out from under their feet," she said.
With the parking lots of the shopping centres empty and some of the stores in the shopping centres closing up, it gives the impression that the whole complex is closed down.
"Many Finns also have the impression that Zsar has gone out of business. This is not the case, we serve our customers every day," Hänninen said.
Of Finland's border crossings into Russia, Vaalimaa is the most southern and typically the busiest.
"It is clear that the amount of cross-border traffic has a direct impact on the vitality of the municipality. At its peak, three and a half million people passed through the Vaalimaa border crossing a year, and now the traffic has almost stopped," Virolahti municipal manager Veli-Matti Pulli told the paper.
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Nuclear option
Energy firms Helen and Fortum are considering building small-scale nuclear reactors, Helsingin Sanomat reports.
As the energy crisis looms over Europe and Finland, nuclear energy is increasingly seen as a viable alternative.
However, a major concern is the long timeline associated with traditionally large power plants. For example, Olkiluoto 3 took 17 years to build and cost nearly three times as much before its completion. The nuclear power plant was completed earlier this year and is set to begin full energy production in December.
One of the major projects currently being researched in Finland is a small-scale nuclear power plant designed for district heating undertaken by LUT University and the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT).
HS writes that Fortum has planned to launch a two-year study this week on the conditions for additional small nuclear power—and nuclear power in general—in Finland and Sweden.
"There are now big ambitions for small-scale nuclear power, but it is important that we proceed very carefully and do not rush headlong in one direction or another," Executive Vice President for Generation at Fortum Simon-Erik Ollus told HS.
One of the biggest hurdles for nuclear energy is the legislation surrounding it. Finland's current nuclear energy law assumes that each nuclear reactor must go through a cumbersome decision-in-principle and licensing process separately.
The current Fortum-owned and operated nuclear power plant has an output of 500 megawatts. The LUT University-VTT nuclear project in comparison would have an output between 20-50 megawatts, which would be enough power to heat a city the size of Lappeenranta, or roughly 70,000 people.
Blustery conditions
Tabloid Iltasanomat covered a strong thunderstorm front that arrived from the west late on Sunday evening.
The weather system was accompanied by gusts of up to 40 metres per second in sea areas, one of the highest wind speeds ever recorded in Finland.
The storm front passed over the southern coast of Finland from Hankoniemi eastwards at midnight.
Eveliina Tuominen, meteorologist on duty at the Finnish Meteorological Institute, said that strong wind gusts on the south coast have blown down trees.
A low pressure system is forecast to extend over Finland, and winds will continue to be strong in maritime areas. In the early morning, coastal winds were around 19 metres per second.
The weather in the coming week will be mainly cloudy but cool.
By Tuesday, new showers will develop in the southern and central parts of the country.
From Wednesday onwards, the weather will be clear across most of the country and temperatures may dip below 10 degrees in the south. Isolated snow showers may occur in northern Finland.