Between 16th and 25th September, the International Festival of Queer Culture will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia for the second time. It is a non-commercial project whose goal is to promote tolerance and diversity and to attract society’s attention to the problems of homophobia and transphobia in Russia through the language of art. Read the full story

Last year marked a milestone for Finland as the Nordic nation’s embassies around the globe processed a record number of visa applications during the year. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that more than 800,000 visa applications were submitted in 2008, which is a tally some 12 percent higher than in 2007. Read the full story

Finnish Railways (VR) announced last week that it will be upgrading its existing rail link between the capital Helsinki and Russia’s St Petersburg. The new high-speed service, which is named Allegro, will begin operations in 2010. Read the full story