Improving Ties

After the iron curtain was lifted, Karelians rushed to discover America. In addition to Petrozavodsk’s sister city relations with Varkasun in Finland, La Rochèle in France and Neue Brandenburg in Germany, Karelia nurtured ties with America. Duluth, Minnesota became a sister city of Petrozavodsk, and Vermont its sister state. Karelian and US students, doctors, journalists, professionals and musicians visited one another’s countries’ (many exchanges being executed by Vermont’s Project Harmony). Senators and politicians also visited regularly (Karelian leader Sergei Katanandov will visit the US in August). Vermont’s Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream set up a factory in Petrozavodsk (and did well until it left in 1998, for reasons which are as numerous as the sources polled). Rare Karelian granite and a pre-fabricated Karelian dacha were brought to the US in search of markets. The city of Duluth donated a Monument to Fishermen to Petrozavodsk; Karelia gave a sculpture of bears to Duluth.

However, 10 years on, the passion in bilateral relations with America has waned somewhat, typified more by stability than novelty. Irina Podgornaya, at the Petrozavodsk City Foreign Relations Department, said she is constantly searching for new ways to pump some excitement into US-Karelian relations, to bring foreign investment to the region (foreign investment presently accounts for 23% of all investment in Karelian industry). For all the cultural and political exchanges with the US, German, Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish companies have been much more active in Karelia than US companies.