For five previous years, leaders of the European Union and Russia have repeated multiple times that there will be no
‘business as usual’ in bilateral relations. In practice, it meant that there would be no relations at all, except of minimal
contacts in those areas, where some EU member states and Russia (including regions of Russian Federation) have
become interdependent in a true sense of the word. Nowadays EU-Russia relations are worse than in any period
after collapse of the USSR. Existence of sharp and systemic crisis in EU-Russia relations is widely recognized by both
sides, including structures of public management, business, civil society and academic community. The challenge
for political elites and academics is to secure few existing fields of common interests (security, trade, peopleto-people contacts) and develop a set of new ideas on ways for return of mutual trust. The regional dimension
(contacts between EU member states and Russian regions) is the most promising nowadays for fulfillment of this
mission since there is no need to discuss sensitive issues of military security, conflicts outside of Europe, etc. Tactics
of ‘small steps’, which is designed to preserve institutional structure of bilateral relations, should become priority
to national and regional parliaments, institutions of executive branch of power, businesses and civil societies of
the two states. This Policy Briefing argues that Finland and Saint-Petersburg should enlarge business contacts,
regular meetings of public servants and exchanges in frameworks of public diplomacy programs, including visits
of researchers and journalists, number of publications in printed editions on partner-state, its business climate,
opportunities for tourism and education. Prospects for facilitation of visa regime, support of joint projects in crossborder cooperation and tourism should enlarge opportunities for peoples of two states to cooperate.