Finland has refused asylum to Russian opposition activist Mikhail Lonkovsky. He was under threat of returning to Russia, said former St. Petersburg-based Mund deputy Svetlana Utkina. The Finnish Immigration Service, according to her, recognized as reliable the information about Mikhail Lonkovsky's long-term political activity, repeated arrests and police violence, but believed that this was not enough to recognize the danger of persecution upon return to Russia. The court upheld the refusal of the immigration service. Mikhail Lonkovsky participated in many demonstrations against the policies of the Russian authorities, and was repeatedly arrested by the police, Otkina reported. In February 2022, he openly opposed the war in Ukraine, and together with his wife, a citizen of Ukraine, left Russia and eventually arrived in Romania, where he applied for asylum. The Romanian authorities applied the EU's Dublin Regulation, which transferred the processing of his application to Finland due to a previously issued Finnish Schengen visa. In 2023, Mikhail was forcibly sent to Finland, and his wife remained in Romania.