'Rules of the Game' in Cross-Border Cooperation: Legal-Administrative Differences in Finnish-Russian Crime Prevention

The article illuminates the dynamics of bilateral cross-border cooperation between two vastly different legal-administrative partners. The analysis utilizes empirical findings of a case study on bilateral Finnish–Russian crime prevention cooperation. Currently, both the differences in national legislations and the fast-changing administrative environment make this cooperation challenging. The case study showed that bilateral cooperation, which is the dominant form of cooperation between EU member states and Russia, is currently affected by disjointed and even competing multilateral and bilateral structures, differences in criminal law and procedure, gaps between international treaties and national legislation, local and regional variations of practices, weak institutional trust and abrupt policy changes. The results indicate that the effectiveness of cross-border networks cannot be assessed strictly in terms of quantitative outcomes. Further long-term development of the cooperation requires both realistic understanding of legal-administrative constraints and strong commitment at the national and supranational political levels.