Durham may suspend ties with Russian sister city over war in Ukraine

Clarification: The story was updated Aug. 15, 2022 to clarify that the unanimous vote was made by the nonprofit’s Kostroma committee after Mayor Elaine O’Neal asked for a new recommendation.

Nearly six months after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Durham City Council will vote Monday on whether to suspend its sister city ties with the Russian city of Kostroma.

The vote follows a recommendation by the Sister Cities of Durham.

“We believe this sends a strong message,” said Tom Harris, the nonprofit organization’s president.

It was a recommendation arrived at after months of building tension as the war stretched on and atrocities mounted, according to Brian Snyder, who heads up the group’s Kostroma committee. The committee’s vote was unanimous.

“My initial impression was that they were just devastated by what their country was doing, and that this was President [Vladimir] Putin’s war, not the Russian people’s war,” Snyder said in an interview. “I began to recognize ... that there was far, far more support — or gross indifference — in Russian society for the war and that it was not President Putin’s war anymore.”

Around the same time, during a June event attended by Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on American mayors to suspend their sister city ties with Russia.

“What do these connections give you? Probably nothing, but they give Russia the opportunity to say even after the beginning of such a war, that it is not isolated,” Zelensky said in a video address.

Kostroma and Durham have been sister cities since the local organization got its start in 1989. The Russian city, which is about the same size as Durham, was founded in 1152 not far from Moscow.

“It’s a beautiful city,” Snyder said.

Sister Cities of Durham at first recommended ties be maintained with Kostroma, adopting a statement a couple of weeks after the invasion began that reaffirmed the relationship.

“The path to world peace through citizen diplomacy is not an easy one. If it were, the Sister Cities movement, born in the height of the Cold War in the 1950s, might not be necessary. But it is,” the statement read.

They reversed course in late June after O’Neal asked them for a new recommendation, according to a letter from Harris. O’Neal said she would speak on the matter at Monday night’s City Council meeting.

“Much has changed since we made our initial decision. Russia’s invasion has continued for four months, with no end in sight, and its aggression has resulted in the loss of many lives on both sides,” Harris wrote.

If the vote passes, Sister Cities of Durham will suspend correspondence and exchange programs, plus remove mention of Kostroma from their programs and events. They will also remove Kostroma’s quilt from a City Hall display.

“It looks like we cannot really have a fruitful relationship anymore and maybe the best thing to do is to do something different to make a statement,” Harris said.

Two other North Carolina cities have ties to Russian ones, according to the U.S.-Russia Chamber of Commerce. Charlotte suspended its ties with Voronezh in March. Asheville maintains a relationship with Vladikavkaz.

Durham, which spends $17,500 a year on its sister cities program, has eight other sister cities:

• Arusha, Tanzania

• Celaya, Mexico

• Durham, U.K. (which severed ties with Kostroma in May, the BBC reported)

• Kavala, Greece

• Sibiu, Romania

• Tilaran, Costa Rica

• Toyama, Japan

• Zhuzhou, China

Monday’s council meeting begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall in downtown Durham.

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