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The most important crossings to Russia (St. Petersburg region) are ''Vaalimaa–Torfianovka'' one the road E18/7 Helsinki-St-Petersburg and ''Nuijamaa–Brusnichnoe'' near Lappeenranta.
The first one is always animated, 7/7 and almost 24h/24. There's lots of through traffic as well as lots of locals from both sides of the border, with Russians coming to buy goods, finnish people going to the other side to buy alcohol, cigarette and fuel and all sort of traffickers. On finnish side they are crowding on the first gas station, just before the customs zone. You can alternate asking drivers on the parking and those queueing to the terminal. A ride to Torfianovka is enough – there's lots of transport going to [[Vyborg]] and [[St. Petersburg]] from there, that doesn't necessarily cross the borderto the finnish side. No use trying to get into Russia with trucks – freight terminal is separate, and sometimes you wait hours, sometimes days. Russia–Finland seems to be faster. To get back from Russia to Finland the best way is to ask on the parking of one of the supermarkets around.
The other one is on the road '''13''' going south from Lappeenranta and bypassing the village of Niirala on the north. There is less traffic here, but the route is more scenic, going along the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saimaa_canal Saimaa canal] (Russian: Сайменский канал; Finnish: Saimaan kanava)
