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Military garrison returns to Alakurtti

Village of Alakurtti

The Russian Ministry of Defence has reconsidered its decision to abandon the border town of Alakurtti in Murmansk Oblast.

Location

Alakurtti, the small town of located south in the Kola Peninsula near the border to Finland, will not after all lose the military garrison, which for decades has been based in the area.

After a meeting with Murmansk Governor Dmitri Dmitriyenko this week, the Ministry of Defence announced that it will keep its garrison in the town. The garrison is one of the core industries in the area.

-They heard us, and the aviation garrison will return to Alakurtti, Governor Dmitriyeko said after the meeting with the ministry. –That means that life again will start moving there, he added, a press release from the regional administration informs.

The town of Alakurtti has about 6500 inhabitants. It was Finnish land until after the 1939 Winter War between the Soviet Union and Finland.