The two main railway lines in Northwest Russia, the October line and the Northern line, in 2009 has a drop in cargo flow of respectively 17,1 percent and 16,8 percent.

The North of Russia under the threat of depopulation. Since the year 2000 the population in the Russian part of the Barents region decreased by 462.000, or by almost 11 percent.

Through a well-established cooperation the customs services in the four countries in the Barents region contribute to keep the level of smuggling across the borders low.

Local politicians in Rana, Northern Norway, want to name a street in the town after Petrozavodsk, capital in the Republic of Karelia.

The company Gazprom Energo Holding, a subsidiary of Gazprom, has increased its ownership stake in Northwest Russian energy generator TGK-1 to 51,78 percent.

The idea to return to direct elections of Russian regional governors is not supported by President Dmitri Medvedev.

The Finnish consulate branch offices in Murmansk and Petrozavodsk received less visa applications last year compared with 2008.

2010 can be very hard for all Russian parts of the Barents Euro-Arctic region. Most of the regional budgets suffered from the drastic lowering of profitability of the companies registered on its territories and corresponding diminishing of the profit tax amounts.

A car with explosives was found near the railway station in the Karelian town of Segezha. The explosives was sized Wednesday, but the news was released today as Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on a televised questions and answers session said that Russia would "break the spine" of terrorism and demanded tough action against "criminals" who attacked their own people.

The €70 million EU-Russia programme for cross-border cooperation in the north will start its first call for proposals on January 11th.