ABSTRACT
This chapter gives an analysis of the opportunities and barriers for cooperation between the Russian Republic of Karelia and Finnish regions on the other side of the border. The findings are overall dichotomous. On the one hand, the region has developed an institutional structure that allows for cross-border initiatives like in many normal European border regions. On the other hand, there are no signs that the region can evolve to a functional region. The prospective Karelia Euregion is not only very large, with different functional interests in the different parts, but the necessary complementarities in the regional economy are hard to find.
