Finland bans Belarusians from buying real estate

July 16, Pozirk. A law prohibiting Belarusian and Russian nationals from buying and selling real estate in Finland entered into force yesterday, yle.fi reported.

Finland’s Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen described the move as a long-overdue measure to strengthen the country’s security and ensure preparedness to resist foreign influence. The law should have been adopted before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, he noted in a post on X.

The public discussion of the bill proposed by the Finnish defense ministry lasted from May 25 to June 9. Earlier, Finnish MPs passed a law allowing the ministry to block real estate transactions for persons or organizations from states that wage a war of aggression or pose a threat to Finland’s security. Both Belarus and Russia met these criteria.

One month ago, lawmakers in Riga passed a bill to ban people and companies from Belarus and Russia from buying properties in Latvia.

In February 2022, Russia started a full-scale war against Ukraine in which the Belarusian authorities supported the Kremlin, allowing Russian troops to attack Ukraine from Belarus on multiple occasions and supplying arms to Moscow.

Also read: Real estate ban for Belarus passes Latvian parliament