Bilateral Relations: More than a third of Finns want Russia to hand over disputed region

In a recently released survey, more than a third of Finns believe Russia should allow Finland to regain sovereignty over Karelia.

The weekly publication Karjala, reported that In this year's poll, 38 per cent of the respondents said they were in favour of regaining control over the province, most of which was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940 and 1944. In a similar poll carried out two years ago, the figure was 36 per cent.

Some 43 per cent of the respondents said Russia need not give Karelia back to Finland, comparing with about half of those polled in the 2005 poll.