Finnish nuclear power plant turns away high school student on field trip because of his Russian citizenship

In Finland, a high school student with dual Finnish and Russian citizenship was denied participation in a field trip to the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant last November, according to the Finnish news outlet Yle. The boy’s mother, Anastasia, says her son was supposed to join his classmates on the trip, but the school informed her that his Russian citizenship and the plant’s “strict corporate security policy” bar him from touring the facility. 

“Do they seriously think a child could be a spy? What’s the reasoning behind this decision? How exactly does my son bear responsibility for the state of world affairs? This is an absolutely racist, absurd, and unlawful excuse for excluding him from the trip,” Anastasia told reporters.

The school’s principal, Minnariitta Raitio, told journalists that students had to share personal details in a questionnaire before the field trip. “After that, we received information from Olkiluoto about who was approved for the trip. The decision was made there,” the principal explained.

Johanna Aho, head of the nuclear power plant’s press service, stated that the decision to prohibit Russian and Belarusian citizens from attending tours of nuclear facilities is based on risk assessments in corporate security and consultations with the Finnish authorities. Aho added that Russians and Belarusians “can visit the guest center, but tours of the facility itself are not possible.”

According to Finland’s Equal Rights Commission, the country’s laws permit differential treatment of citizens based on legal grounds or certain objective factors. “Differentiated treatment of an individual must be based on the law, have a legitimate objective, and the means to achieve this objective must be proportionate. Otherwise, it could be considered discrimination. In some cases, differential treatment does not require legislative oversight, but even then, it must have an acceptable purpose from the perspective of fundamental human rights, and the means of achieving it must be proportionate,” said Matti Jutila, an expert advising Finland’s Equal Rights Commission.