Joensuu removes sign pointing to Petrozavodsk

Joensuu has removed a sign pointing to Petrozavodsk to show that the Finnish city no longer cooperates with Russia, Yle reports. The move reflects a broader shift in North Karelia, where decades of cross-border cooperation have largely ended since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The sign stood for years in central Joensuu. The city removed it earlier this year after deciding in 2022 that cooperation with Russian partners was suspended for the time being.

Joni Virkkunen, research director at the University of Eastern Finland’s Karelian Institute, said practically all even slightly official bodies in North Karelia had ended cooperation with Russia because of the war.

Before the invasion began in February 2022, businesses, educational institutions and organisations in North Karelia maintained extensive contacts with the Republic of Karelia on the other side of the border.

“Thirty years of cooperation quickly turned into consideration of whether we ever want to cooperate again,” Virkkunen said.

He experienced the change directly. Together with colleagues, Virkkunen had been planning a book to celebrate 30 years of cross-border cooperation between North Karelia and the Republic of Karelia. The project received funding a week before Russia invaded Ukraine.

“The project had to be completely reworked,” Virkkunen said.

The research team eventually completed a book this year describing cross-border interaction over the past three decades. The project showed the researchers that many people in North Karelia had been deeply committed to the cooperation, with some building their careers around it.

Today, contact between many former partners has been reduced to occasional birthday greetings sent by text message or through social media, Virkkunen said.

Virkkunen does not expect cooperation between cities and universities to recover for a long time, even if the war in Ukraine ends. Restoring trust will take a long time, he said.

Growing prejudice in Russia and a younger generation influenced by propaganda from the Russian government and negative portrayals of Finland are among the obstacles to renewed cooperation.

Research cooperation might eventually be easier to rebuild in mathematics and technical sciences than in history, Virkkunen said. Private actors and companies may also find it easier to resume cooperation than public bodies, although they are not expected to do so before the war and anti-Finnish propaganda in Russia have ended.

The removed sign had stood in Joensuu’s Friendship Park, a central city park with a signpost pointing to the city’s official twin cities: Hof, Ísafjörður, Linköping, Tønsberg and Vilnius.

Petrozavodsk had also been included, even though it had never been an official twin city of Joensuu. The city quietly unscrewed the sign earlier this year.