Wow, ok, you come across as a bit rude. I'm newish to this board, and just joined this month. I hope you're not typical of posters here otherwise I really can't be bothered posting anything here. Mods should take note of posters like you, I think. Way to turn off new members!
Erm, as you are Finnish yourself, I suppose I don't have to remind you that not everybody on here is a native English speaker. So, the way some non-native speakers word things may sound abrupt. But this is not a reflection on the poster - it is a reflection of how good their English teacher was.
I really hope that your enjoyment of the forum has not been dented by your experiences in this thread.
ANYWAY, the core of what I was saying is that there are few Finnish RESIDENTS of St Petersburg. I thought this would be interesting to the poster who asked about Finns in St Petersburg who could apply for Finnish citizenship. As I mentioned, Russians of Finnish descent (Ingrian Finns) were a culturally significant minority in St Petersburg up until the 1990s, when Finnish immigration law allowed them to resettle in Finland. Most Ingrian Finns have left St Petersburg for Finland. The law was changed in 2010, so if any Russians now discover Finnish ancestry it won't help them gain Finnish citizenship. Despite this, Finnish citizenship law is more straight forward than some other European countries (eg Estonia or Latvia. I was surprised someone suggested Estonia as an alternative for Polina K, as Estonian citizenship is very strict). If skaters were to start training in Finland, as long as they could prove some proficiency in Finnish (or Swedish) they could apply for citizenship after 5 years. Some skaters have in fact done this. Alisa Drei of Russia moved to Finland with her mom when she got married to a Finn and got Finnish citizenship, represented Finland in the Olympics (1998 I think). I don't believe acquiring Finnish citizenship without residency is possible unless at least one parent is a Finnish citizen. So hopefully that is of some interest to the discussion on alternative nationalities.
Personally, I found that VERY interesting. Thank you for sheding light on the issue of the Finns in Russia.
As you may have gathered from my criticism of the Japanese nationality laws, I believe that if you have ancestors from a particular country, you should be allowed citizenship of that country. So, I am very disappointed that Finland has changed the rules. But, I'm sure they had a good (probably economic) reason to do so.
And thank you for pointing out about the strictness of the Estonian laws. The member that suggested that possibility later admitted that they were guessing in their suggestions!
By the way, if anybody is interested, I started another thread today which is directly derived from this thread. It is about the possible consequences of representing a different country, and can be found at:
http://www.goldenskate.com/forum/showthread.php?40747
Hope you enjoy reading my thoughts
CaroLiza_fan