Russia isn't included in the European Union's open skies agreement, right. That's why this small town on the FINNISH side of the border has good chances as an enter point. The distance from the LPP/EFLP airport (in EU-Finland) to St. Petersburg is by road 210 km, 2½ hours drive (+border crossing). There you can use coaches to transport people outside of the Union - to the center of St. Petersburg. It is pretty consistent with the habits of FR passengers - they have accepted somewhat longer travel from the airport to their destinations. And, well... You, as a passenger, could save so much money! Return flight LON - LED will cost you nowadays over £ 200 (am I right?), Ryanair could take you up to the Russian border for £ 60 or so. It is a difference for us, living in the West, it's even more so for Russians (average people are still very poor, but they just have to travel sometimes, no matter what the reason were). And indeed, no one will start real low-cost connections directly to Russia any time soon. But it only boosts chances of FR or anybody else who'll decide to be the first. The mentioned location of Lappeenranta is unique (St. Petersburg is so close). Even the new EU members like Poland or Hungary are still many hundreds of kilometers away from any bigger Russian town. And former Leningrad is the second biggest there. Got it?