This paper aims to examine how Russian north-western regions and municipalities use their marginal/border position as a resource to build a sustainable development strategy. Theoretically, this study is based on the marginality theory which states that border or remotely located subnational units are able to turn their marginality from disadvantage to a resource and transform themselves from depressed and provincial territories to attractive places hosting intense international flows of goods, services, capital, technologies and people. A number of venues for the EU-Russia cross-border co-operation are explored: the European Neighbourhood Instrument, Northern Dimension partnerships, Euroregions and city-twinning. The authors conclude that despite some problems with establishing a proper division of labour between above programmes and project implementation cross-border co-operation proved to be a valuable instrument not only for successful development of the marginal/border actors but also for establishing mutual trust and collaborative relations between Russia and neighbouring EU countries.