Washington cities with Russian sister cities faced with decision

Governor Jay Inslee has ordered Washington agencies to cut ties with Russian businesses, but four Washington cities have a very different, unique kind of relationship with Russia: sister cities.

According to Sister Cities International, a sister city is an officially recognized relationship with another city around the world that includes “municipal, business, trade, educational, and cultural exchanges and projects.” Some Washington cities have multiple sister cities on different continents.

Tacoma, Bellingham, Anacortes, and La Conner all have sister cities in Russia. And the two Skagit County cities on that list have been posed with the question over the past week of whether they will remain with their Russian counterparts.

Scott Thomas, town administrator for La Conner, drafted a statement this week in support of Ukraine at the request of the La Conner Town Council. The town council is still deciding whether or not to cut ties with La Conner’s sister city of Olga, Russia.

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Thomas told KIRO Newsradio that it is ultimately the council’s decision, but he noted that there are benefits to keeping the relationship and even strengthening it. As the United States Conference of Mayors has pointed out, communicating with Russian cities can help get messages of democracy past the propaganda messages with which their government is bombarding them.

“They observe that because of the protests that have arisen within Russia’s cities, these relationships should be maintained and strengthened, so as to empower Russian citizens to speak out,” he said. “Expressing national condemnation of Russia’s invasion is part of the plan, and to embolden those Russian citizens who would object to this invasion.”

He also observed that the sister city relationship can help locals of Russian heritage feel welcome.

“Skagit County has a fairly significant population of Russian immigrants in our own community,” Thomas said. “La Conner wants to assure these immigrants that we don’t blame them.”

In neighboring Anacortes, the city council elected to keep sister city Lomonosov, but voted unanimously this week to take down the Russian flags adorning the sister city displays. At various spots throughout Anacortes, including the entrance to town along Highway 20 and the council chambers themselves, the flags of Anacortes’ sister city nations — Russia, Canada, Japan, Croatia, and Romania — stand alongside the American stars and stripes.

“Flying the Russian flag that is currently on the tanks that are attacking people, unprovoked — I would advocate for taking the flags off city displays currently,” said City Councilmember Carolyn Mouton at Monday’s meeting.

City council members were adamant that the removal of the flag was not a statement against all of the Russians who stand opposed to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but rather is purely in reference to the actions of the Russian government.

“The Russian flag, I suppose, is the flag of the Russian people, but it is also the flag of the state of Russia,” City Councilmember Ryan Walters said. “And so it does, in fact, upset me to be sitting in this chair [in front of the flag] right now.”

But the council members noted that the relationship with Lomonosov — which has seen exchanges between Russians and Anacortes residents several times over the past two decades — is a symbol of goodwill between the two communities, regardless of a dictatorial government.

“It is because we’re seeing the flag as a symbol of the state, the Russian federation, the government that has done this, and not a symbol of our friends in Lomonosov,” City Councilmember Bruce McDougall said. “Our sister city’s relationship will absolutely be preserved.”

Anacortes Mayor Matt Miller had advocated the previous week for keeping the Russian flag standing, stating that he had no wish to turn a city council meeting into a “model U.N. debate.”

“I’m sure there are millions of people in Russia who despise what their government is doing — many have recently been jailed for bravely saying so in public,” he said at the time. “And they probably still love their flag — a flag that replaced the Soviet Union’s hammer and sickle.”

Since then, however, he said the city received more than a dozen impassioned emails about the flag, along with phone calls and letters — and so the city decided to take another look.

Miller did not respond to a request for comment.

In Bellingham, Mayor Seth Fleetwood announced at last week’s council meeting that the city would keep its sister city relationship with Nakhodka, Russia, another Pacific port city.

“This inspired idea of sister cities that was created by President Eisenhower after World War II was very much based on the idea that, if we made friends with people in foreign countries, we would be less inclined to engage in the sorts of things that are happening in Russia right now,” he said, adding, “The people in our sister city in Russia are our friends. That’s the people of Russia. Our beef is with the dictator in Russia.”

Bellingham City Council members backed up that statement.

“This is Putin’s war, this is not an offense of the Russian people, and sister cities are the cure to the problem — not part of the problem,” Bellingham City Councilmember Michael Lilliquist said.

The City of Tacoma did not respond to a request for comment.

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