The paper discusses the expanding interrelations between culture and politics in the Finnish-Russian cross-border cooperation. In order to gain credibility in the international politics as well as among the local actors, a cultural partnership initiative with a prominent market rationale has been adopted as a way of emphasizing the joint practices of cooperation across the state borders. The cultural agenda, in which the cultural heritage of the ceded borderland is used selectively and where the emphasis is put on the institutional and artistic/ethnic notions of culture, looks for the shared values of cooperation, but leaves unnoticed the inconsistency between the ethnic and civic arguments inherent in the cooperation practices. However, culture as a value-intensive concept has also its benefits in the emerging value-based cooperation practices and for the development of true transnational forms of action. Cultural cooperation in terms of partnerships has potential for new individually based practices that also may lead to a more creative sense of citizenship.