Home Russian

A "kotiryssä" (literally "Home Russian") is a Soviet or Russian contact person of a politician, bureaucrat, businessman or other important person in Finland. The dozens of KGB officers working out of the Tehtaankatu embassy of the Soviet Union is now well documented. The public did not know about the system until the book Tamminiemen pesänjakajat was published in 1981. The kotiryssä system was closely related to Finlandization.

Examples

 * Viktor Vladimirov - KGB officer for elite Finnish politicians, including Urho Kekkonen.
 * Felix Karasev - KGB officer who arrived in April 1985 to replace Vladimirov.
 * Vladimir Stepanov - KGB officer and later Soviet Ambassador to Finland.
 * Sergei Ivanov - KGB officer for six years in Finland in the 1980s, following alleged deportation from the UK. He worked directly under Karasev. Later a top member of the Russian government.