As the Federal migratory service reports, 38 thousand Finnish citizens visited Karelia in 2006, and only 12% of the comers were honest about the purpose of their visit. As a rule, they got visas via tourist firms in St. Petersburg claiming they were going to Karelia with the tourism purpose, while the real purpose of their coming was visits to relatives or friends. This is considered a violation of the migratory legislation.
      Amendments which were added to the migratory legislation and came into force January15 are expected to fight with this type of violations. Now foreign tourists will pay 4.5-5 thousand roubles fines if they provide inauthentic information about the purpose of their visit.
      
      Source: www.regions.ru