“What if we are afraid? No, we are calm and prepared”.
Kimmo Jarva’s gestural language coincides with the tranquility of his words.
His voice does not tremble as he reaffirms the desire to Lappeenranta, a Finnish city that he is mayor of, for the country to join NATO despite repeated threats from the Kremlin.
These are not easy weeks for this idyllic city that sits next to the fourth largest lake in Europe and that wins awards for its cleanliness and environmental fight.
Just a 16 kilometers from the Russian border, Lappeenranta had been a perfect example of the good relations between Helsinki and Moscow, within the framework of the famous Finnish “pragmatism”.
The city boasts of having a special location and being the gateway between West and East, something that has transformed local commerce and industry, adding unique features to the local culture .
P But now, like the rest of the country, it leans toward NATO protection against a neighbor they no longer trust.
The Finnish government of Sanna Marin is taking rapid steps to join the military alliance led by the United States and other Western powers. An 62% of Finns support the decision.
But for those who have lived decades of good relations with their neighbor, the dramatic change in position will not be easy to reverse.
Decades of exchange
The citizens of Lappeenranta and other border cities are aware that the change in attitude will not be free.
“Since the pandemic, due to the restrictions, we lose one million euros every day because Russian tourists no longer come to our region to shop. Now, with the war and our steps to join NATO, we don’t know how long this situation will last,” says Kimmo Jarva, the city’s mayor, to BBC Mundo.
Lappeenranta has staged Like few cities in Finland, the benefits of good relations with Moscow.
Every year, a million and a half Russians crossed the border to enjoy its hospitality and its peaceful location next to Saimaa, the largest lake in the country.
It is also a destination known for its duty-free sales, which motivated thousands of Russians to come daily to fill their trunks with purchases and return home.
When the European Union imposed sanctions against Russia after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Kremlin responded by vetoing food imports from European countries. Lappeenranta then became the way for millions of Russians in the area to buy products banned in their country.
Business flourished for decades of from one side of the border to the other thanks to the exchange. The city, in fact, is closer to Saint Petersburg, the second largest city in Russia, than to Helsinki, the Finnish capital.
“We opened (tourist) offices in St. Petersburg and in Vyborg. I visited them every month. We cooperated, we organized press events. Everything was friendship and cooperation”, says Jarva.
But now there are hardly any vehicles at the border crossings. Both countries have effectively banned commercial and private traffic between the two territories.
The offices in St. Petersburg that advertised Lappeenranta as the gateway between Russia and the West have closed.
“ It will take many years and many changes for us to see that again”, laments the mayor.
A rapid change
For decades, Finland displayed a neutral behavior towards Russia. He assumed it after the end of World War II as a way to ensure peace against a much more powerful neighbor.
This behavior is Popularly known as “Finlandization”, a concept created by Finland to convince the former Soviet Union of its neutrality and in which generations of politicians and citizens believed.
NATO membership had never reached more than 000% approval among Finns. Weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, public opinion took a dramatic turn, doubling down to an approval of the 50%, the highest in the history of polls.
Not only that, the number of opponents to membership dropped from a 44% in 2021 to only one 16% today.
“And looking at the polls, it doesn’t seem that the population of border cities (like Lappeenranta) are too scared either”, analyzes for BBC Mundo Charly Salonius-Pasternak, researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs.
“The majority here no longer believes that Russia will not attack if Finland is kind enough. If Russia decides to attack, it will do so anyway, like in Ukraine. There is a belief that what used to work no longer works”, adds the expert
“After the war, our city has changed its mind quickly. We believe that those who are making the decision to join NATO are doing the right thing,” says Jarva.
Echoes of the past
1,300 kilometers of border join both countries, but Russia is 50 times larger and its population 26 times greater.
For centuries, the shadow of Russian expansionist aspirations were projected onto this territory, which it invaded on several occasions.
The fortress of Lappeenranta was, in fact, built by the Russians in 1200 after a bloody battle in which hundreds of Finns died.
At the beginning of the Second World War, both countries fought a relatively short war in which Finland managed to stop the Soviet advances but could not prevent to be dispossessed of a part of its territory.
Large areas of Karelia, the region in which Lappeenranta is located, were occupied by the Soviet during the conflict. The city suffered heavy bombardment.
For experts such as Salonius-Pasternak, this double relationship of cooperation but at the same time of rivalry is something “to be expected” between border neighbors.
“The same people who sell goods to Russian tourists one week, the next could find themselves training in the reserve knowing that if they are called it is because Russia has attacked. This is how it has always been”, says the expert to BBC Mundo.
You look to the future
Russian officials have gone from warnings to threats before the steps of Finland and Sweden, another of its close neighbors, to join NATO.
A risk that the Finns seem to be willing to take on and for which they say they are ready.
“We are prepared to face cyberattacks, spread of false news, but I don’t think we are afraid of war or some kind of problem. We have shelters and we are ready for any kind of attack. We are used to living in this area and we are more pragmatic than many other countries in Europe”, says Jarva.
Pragmatism, precisely, is one of the words that Lappeenranta officials repeat the most with regard to what may happen in the future.
They trust that the path their country is taking will not confuse either. His discontent is with Vladimir Putin and those responsible for the war . Not with Russian citizens.
“We are a popular city, the second most visited in Finland after Helsinki. And we owe that especially to Russian tourism,” says Markku Heinonen, project manager for the city, to BBC Mundo.
“Many Russians continue to travel to other countries in Europe and the United States, which are in NATO, so I hope it’s a problem that gets resolved. We are neighbors and we must get used to this new form of coexistence, ”he adds.
“We also have other sources of income and other industries. We have a major university. We don’t just live off tourism”, completes Päivi Pietiläinen, head of international relations for the city council.
More than 80 nationalities coexist in this city of just over 70,000 population, including a significant Russophone population.
“This is not their fault. We want to take care of them and let them live in peace here, but for Putin and all those responsible for this war, we believe that it will take decades to return to normality, ”says Jarva.
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