We must not abandon Russians to Putin’s sphere of influence | Rosa Liksom

In this, one of a series of essays on the war in Ukraine from countries in or neighbouring the former Soviet bloc, a Finnish artist and writer argues that cultural ties with Russia remain essential

I was born and raised in the western part of Finnish Lapland. Living in proximity to the Swedish border gave me a liberal culture and outlook. As a teenager in the 1970s, I walked across the bridge into wealthier Sweden to buy trendy clothes, pop LPs and American fashion magazines.

I was 15 when I travelled for the first time across Finland’s eastern border, to Murmansk on Russia’s Arctic coast. I was excited by the city, the Russian language, and the people, who seemed at the same time foreign and familiar. Since then, events happening in the Soviet Union and in Russia have been a part of my life. In the 1980s, I studied in Moscow and made trips to various parts of the Soviet Union and, later, Russia. I have written three books with Russian settings.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/JIFS43w