A kotiryssä (jocular[1] Finnish: one’s home Russky or home Russian) was a Soviet or Russian contact person of a Finnish politician, bureaucrat, businessman or other important person.
[2] The term kotiryssä referred especially to Soviet diplomats or spies stationed in Helsinki in the 1960s and 1970s who were designated by the Soviet government to gather information from specific persons in Finnish politics and government.
[2] As such information gathering techniques have arguably always been prevalent among spies, some Finns have argued that the kotiryssä system was a normal way to conduct diplomatic relations between two countries.
[3] The dozens of KGB officers working out of the Tehtaankatu embassy of the Soviet Union as diplomats is now well documented.
The Russian diplomatic corps in Helsinki no longer maintains contacts with the Finnish politicians and journalists.