[ noun ] a region in Finland and Russia between the Gulf of Finland and the White Sea <noun.location>
But the Finns will send thousands of tons of meat and potatoes to the Soviet province of Karelia, which partly belonged to Finland before World War II.
Yeltsin will represent the party organization of Karelia, an autonomous Soviet republic northeast of Leningrad, Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov told reporters at a news briefing.
But Karelia softened the declaration by agreeing to voluntarily cede some of its powers to both.
Karelia, home to 700,000 people, declared that its constitution and laws take precedence over those of Russia and the Soviet Union, the official Soviet news agency said Saturday.
Boris N. Yeltsin, the former Moscow party chief who was sacked after criticizing the slow pace of reform, was elected a delegate from Karelia, a region bordering Finland.