President Medvedev to Visit Finland This Spring

Plans are underway for Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s first formal visit to Finland.

President Tarja Halonen’s office confirms the visit. However her office says the exact timing of the visit remains undetermined. According to information obtained by YLE, the visit will likely occur this spring.

Multi-Cultural Regionalism Emerges as New Player in Russian Politics

Regional organizations in some parts of the Russian Federation are becoming multi-cultural, a development that strengthens both the communities and the regions of which they are a part but one that undercuts Moscow’s long-held view that there is a sharp distinction between non-Russian republics and predominantly ethnic Russian regions.

Finno-Ugrics seek support from Kyiv against Russian ‘Colonialism’

The gas Moscow is now using as a political weapon against Ukraine was first stolen by Russia from the Finno-Ugric peoples of Western Siberia, and that “amoral theft” should be condemned not only by the European Union but “particularly” by Ukraine, a Finno-Ugric activist has told a Kyiv newspaper.

In an interview published in “Gazeta” two days ago, Rostislav Martynyuk, a Finno-Ugric scholar