Russia terminates cross-border agreement with Finland
Amid growing tensions with Helsinki, Moscow now put an end to a deal supposed to support regional cooperation across borders.
Millions of euros have been invested in cultural cooperation, environmental improvement, social well-being, business development, and infrastructure over the last decade.
Finland has played on the funding instruments provided by the European Union’s Interreg programs, the Barents cooperation, and the Northern Dimension. Now the door is closed. Moscow says stop.
Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on October 20 signed a decree terminating the 2012 agreement with the Finnish Government on promoting cross-border cooperation.
Misustin orders the Foreign Ministry to inform the Finnish part about the decision.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, nearly all practical cross-border cooperation with Finland has come to a halt.
Russia has been isolated from the Barents Council, the Arctic Council, the Baltic Sea Council, and other arenas for regional cooperation. Sanctions have limited trade and borders are again seeing an Iron Curtain coming down.
