International organizations: The Finnish-Russian Center opened in Helsinki

The Finnish-Russian Cultural Center opened in Helsinki. The initiator is the fund of the support of the Russian culture in Finland “Culture”, which started working in the beginning of the year.

According to the chairman of board of directors Yann Puumalainen, “the center will become a platform on which will be a permanent place for the exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists, literary meetings with writers and poets of the two countries, film screenings, seminars, “round tables”, dedicated to the development of art in Russia and Finland”. “Our main task is to unite people and help Russians living in Finland to integrate into society through culture”, - she said.

According to Puumalainen, the center will start its work with an exhibition of paintings of contemporary Russian artist Marina Vasilyeva.

According to the fund “Culture”, in Suomi there are now about 60 000 Russians, half of whom live in Helsinki. “Russian-speaking population in Finland is growing. For Finns Russian culture and art are very important sources of education. We believe that the events that will take place in the center, will be of interest to the Russians, and the people of Finland’, - said in the organization.

The fund, designed to support the development of Russian culture in Finland, was opened on 1 January this year with the participation of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture. It was also attended by the city councils of Helsinki, Espoo, and Vantaa. In the nearest future it is planned to join the city councils of Turku, Tampere, Joensuu and Lappeenranta.