It is located on the Karelian Isthmus, 137 kilometers (85 mi) west of St. Petersburg, at the northern coast of the Gulf of Finland, near Beryozovye Islands (Finnish: Koivusaari (Koivistonsaari), Tiurinsaari ja Piisaari; Swedish: Björkö) which are protected as a sea bird sanctuary.

birch settlement) in 1268, when the Hanseatic merchants from Gotland petitioned the Novgorod Republic to secure their passage to the Neva River.

[citation needed] The 1721 Treaty of Nystad, which concluded the war with Sweden, finalized the transfer of this part of Old Finland to Russia.

Koivisto, together with the rest of the Karelian Isthmus, was ceded by Finland to the Soviet Union by the Moscow Peace Treaty as a result of the Winter War.

The Finns held Koivisto during Continuation War but again ceded the town to the Soviet Union after the Moscow Armistice.

Within the framework of administrative divisions, it is, together with twenty rural localities, incorporated within Vyborgsky District as Primorskoye Settlement Municipal Formation.

[4] The town is the site of reportedly the largest Baltic Sea oil terminal, Port of Primorsk.

[19] In the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, on April 29, 2022, Rosneft was not scheduled to export any diesel from Primorsk in May, as demand from Europe dropped off due to sanctions.