Oklahoma City suspends sister-city relationship with Russian city over Ukraine invasion
Oklahoma City suspended its sister city relationship with Ulyanovsk, Russia, on Tuesday, in an effort to show its solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
The relationship between the two cities began in 1995, but no known activity between the municipalities has taken place in at least 15 years, which is a "generous" estimation, said Mary Blankenship Pointer, former president of Sister Cities OKC Inc.
Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt contacted the mayor of Ulyanovsk in March of this year, but said he received no response.
"I think if you were to call the people in Russia, they would probably say ... we didn't even know we had a sister city relationship there, we don't know who these people are or anything about them," Pointer said.
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Oklahoma City joins American cities, like Chicago; Dallas; and Des Moines, Iowa, in standing against Russia's invasion of Ukraine by suspending or terminating their Russian sister-city relationships. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged cities to break these ties while remotely addressing attendees of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, which Holt attended.
However, Sister Cities International President Leroy Allala encouraged cities in a letter to continue such relationships, "especially now when the political issues and actions of the day threaten to disrupt the positive, constructive relationships that have been made, over many years, at the people-to-people and community-to-community levels."
Pointer, an adviser to Sister Cities OKC and former treasurer of the International board, said the decision was "not taken lightly." Allala's sentiment is better suited for American cities that have active relationships with their Russian sister cities, Pointer said.
Ulyanovsk is the hometown of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union. The town was named for Lenin's family name, Ulyanov, after his death in 1924.
How did Oklahoma City and Ulyanovsk become sister cities?
How the two cities developed a sister city relationship is a little fuzzy, but Pointer said she believes it was born out of the relationship between Oklahoma City University's then-President Jerald Walker and the Ulyanovsk branch of Moscow State University.
Pointer said the memo of understanding between the two cities was signed in June 1995, and that she isn't aware of any official sister-city contact after that.
A July 1995 article in The Oklahoman reported OCU and Moscow State were creating an exchange student program.
Edmond, Oklahoma City's neighbor to the north, formed a sister-city relationship with Engles, Russia, in 2012, despite protest from Edmond residents.
Casey Moore, spokesperson for the city of Edmond, said that while the sister-city relationship has not been suspended or terminated, Edmond's sister-city association voted to become inactive in July.
The sister-city relationships between Edmond and Engles, as well as Qingyang, China, and Miraflores, Peru, had been inactive for several years due to a lack of people able to keep the relationships going.
"The one thing that we did do is pay for membership dues as part of the Sister Cities International," Moore said. "We're going to continue to do that so that we can remain active with the international organization. But as far as active relationships with our sister cities, we're stepping back from that and we won't have that for the foreseeable future."
What happens next?
The suspension of the sister-city designation between Oklahoma City and Ulyanovsk is indefinite, but doesn't have to be forever.
"I think the suspension is kind of a nice compromise as opposed to a cancellation, as we try to see where everything goes and it gives us options moving forward," Holt said.
Oklahoma City has seven other sister cities ― Haikou, China; Kigali City, Rwanda; Puebla, Mexico; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tainan, Taiwan; Taipei, Taiwan; and Piura, Peru ― most of which are much more active relationships, Pointer said.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma City suspends sister city tie with Ulyanovsk, Russia
