The Foreign Economic Relations of St. Petersburg and Finland During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Challenges and Prospects

Russian-Finnish cooperation was largely determined by the level of cooperation between the border regions, in which St. Petersburg played a key role. With the aggravation of relations between the Russian Federation and the countries of the European Union, it is interregional ties that are becoming one of the unique opportunities for the development of bilateral cooperation, especially in the economic sphere. However, in addition to these factors, at the turn of 2010-2020, the COVID-19 pandemic became a systemic challenge that both sides had to overcome. According to the authors' hypothesis, the COVID-19 pandemic may limit the cooperation system, but at the same time become an incentive for its improvement. In order to determine the specifics of the St. Petersburg-Finland economic cooperation in 2020-2021, the authors consider how the pandemic affected the level of trade and investment cooperation, as well as contacts of regions’ representatives and the implementation of interregional projects. The sources of the study are statistical data from Federal State Statistics Service of Russia and Finnish Customs, materials of state authorities and mass media. The authors rely on the approaches of neoclassical realists to the study of international relations, applying the concept of interest in the external relations of regions in the federation, as well as the concepts of auxilary and identity paradiplomacy, which from different angles show the role of regions in the country's foreign policy in the continuation of the studies of I. Duchacek and P. Soldatos. As a result of the study, the authors show that the pandemic initially led to a reduction in trade and investment flows between St. Petersburg and Finland, but its negative impact was overcome by the end of 2021, and the online format allowed maintaining interaction in the field of culture and education. Nevertheless, the epidemic highlighted the existing trends of reducing the role of the Finnish direction in the external relations of the city and its reorientation to partners from Asia and CIS countries in accordance with regional interests and systemic constraints.