Finland to open Consulate General in Murmansk
Finnish Foreign Minister, Aleksander Stubb, today announced that the current representation in Murmansk will be upgraded to a full-fledged Consulate General.
The Foreign Minister came with the announcement in his keynote speech in the 20th anniversary seminar of the Arctic Centre in Rovaniemi.
Today, Finland’s Murmansk office is just a filial of the St. Petersburg based Consulate General.
From before, Norway has a Consulate General in Murmansk. The Norwegian Consulate General also represents Sweden and its issues visas on behalf of the Netherlands.
In addition to Murmansk in the Barents Region, Finland is represented in the Karelian capital Petrozavodsk with a branch office of its Consulate General in St. Petersburg.
In 2008, Finland issued a total of 742,237 visas in its consular units in Russia, as reported by BarentsObserver earlier. Of these, the Murmansk branch issued 19,361 visas. Comparison figures show that the Norwegian General Consulate in Murmansk last year issued 13,000 visas.
Finland’s Foreign Minister, Aleksander Stubb, will go to Murmansk where he will meet the foreign ministers of Norway, Russia and Sweden at the Barents Euro-Arctic Council meeting in mid-October.
