26.9.2008 at 17:00
The Finnish and Russian governments on Friday signed a draft agreement to extend the lease on the Russian part of the Saimaa canal by half a century.
The current lease expires in 2013.
Igor Levitin, the Russian transport minister, said the agreement proper would be ready at the end of next year.
The cost of the 20km stretch of the canal is to quadruple.
Anu Vehviläinen (centre), the Finnish transport minister, said the increase was reasonable considering there had been only a single increase since 1963.
The canal connects Lake Saimaa to the Gulf of Finland near Vyborg, a city that was ceded along with the rest of the Karelian Isthmus to the Soviet Union in the second world war.
/STT/
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