This research is devoted to the analysis of the qualitative state of international relations between the Leningrad region and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the cultural, scientific and educationalspheres at the present stage. The author turns to the Russian legislation on paradiplomacy to determine theframework within which Russian subjects can operate, as well as to specific examples of cooperation withthe federal state. The criteria for the effectiveness of paradiplomacy were the number of physical contactsand mentions in the media of the partner region. The author refers to the unrealized potential of culturalcooperation between the two regions and to the limitations imposed on the development of ties by the inevitable foreign policy context of Russian paradiplomacy.