Putin to visit Finland for its 100th anniversary

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin (R), during Putin’s last visit in Finland on July 1, 2016. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo/ AP/Getty Images)
Vladimir Putin is set to visit the Finnish town of Savonlinna in late July in a trip arranged to mark the centenary of Finland’s independence from Russia.

Finland is to host the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, in Savonlinna in late July. The visit will take in a performance by the Bolshoi Opera company of Iolanta by Pyotr Tchaikovsky. It is part of the month-long Savonlinna Opera Festival, which begins on July 6.

Putin had previously announced that he would visit Finland in the hundredth year since it declared independence from Russia, but had not given a time or place for the trip.

The last time Putin came to Finland was in early June last year, when he met Finnish President Sauli Niinistö at his summer residence in Naantali.

Niinistö’s office has not yet confirmed Putin’s July visit. On Tuesday it did announce a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe on 10 July, to be hosted by Niinistö.

Related stories from around the North:

Canada: Canada takes part in EU meeting on Arctic policy, Radio Canada International

Denmark: Q&A: Impact assessments in the Arctic – What Canada and Greenland can learn from each other, Eye on the Arctic

Finland: Russian and Finnish foreign ministers tackle “difficult issues” during meeting in Finland, Yle News

Iceland: Iceland won’t back down on sanctions against Russia, The Independent Barents Observer

Norway: Russia test-fires missile from the Barents Sea hours before Norway’s foreign minister visits, The Independent Barents Observer

Russia: Russia’s foreign minister visits Lend-Lease Monument in Fairbanks, Alaska Dispatch News

Sweden: Finnish president meets with Swedish PM, royals amid Winter War commemorations, Radio Sweden

United States: Arctic Council continues to defy pessimism, blog by Heather Exner-Pirot

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