The Administrative Court of Helsinki on 27 April stopped the decision to deport Olga and Nikita Belovs until the completion of their appeal or until the court makes another decision, Dozhd TV channel reported citing the court’s decision.
The Belovs are in custody in a detention centre in Helsinki.
Olga and Nikita Belovy are a mother and son from Russia who went to Finland after the start of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war. They helped Ukrainian refugees, in particular cooperating with the volunteer humanitarian centre FinEst in the Finnish town of Uusikaupunki.
The Russians applied for asylum in Finland, but were refused. They tried to appeal the decision in court, but were unsuccessful. On 24 April, the Belovs were summoned to the police, where they were told that deportation proceedings had begun. Soon the Russians were placed in custody.
The story of the Belovs was told by journalists. Nikita Belov said that he feared persecution in Russia for actively helping Ukrainians.
According to TV channel Dozhd, Belov left Russia because of his work on an “unnamed secret project” at Bardin’s Tsniichormet. His superiors claimed that the project did not concern the war. This turned out not to be the case. Belov refused to work, because of which “the situation quickly escalated” and he left for Finland with his mother.