Russian tourists ravaged the residence of Santa Claus

The residence of Santa Claus in Finland was declared bankrupt due to non-payment of taxes in the amount of 200 thousand euros (223 thousands of dollars).

According to Reuters, the deplorable financial condition is associated with a sharp reduction in the flow of Russian tourists, who were among the most frequent guests of the Santa Claus residence. The number of visitors from Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal also decreased significantly.

“First there were fewer tourists from Greece, then Spain. This was followed by a decrease in the number of visitors from Italy and Portugal, and then Russia,” complains Jarmo Kariniemi, managing director of the Santa Claus Village in the Finnish city of Rovaniemi in Lapland.

According to the management of the theme park, they have another week to resolve the issue of paying taxes, and they hope to avoid closing the residence of Santa Claus. According to the managing director, half of the required amount has already been collected.

Last year, about three hundred thousand tourists visited Santa Claus's "office". Due to the decrease in the number of tourists from Russia, the Japanese became the most frequent guests.

Cool relationship

Relations between Finland and Russia over the past year and a half against the background ofEurope-imposed sanctions against Russia because of the crisis in Ukraine and adopted by Moscow counter sanctions deteriorated significantly.

In the spring of this year, the Federal Security Service banned for five years the entry into Russia of a Finnish investor, a member of the boards of directors of a number of large Russian companies, Seppo Remes.

In july finland refused at the entrance to the Speaker of the Russian State Duma Sergey Naryshkin, who was going to attend the session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly 5 – 9 in July, as 21 in March 2014, the EU included him in the list of persons who were banned from entering the Schengen zone due to the annexation of Crimea.