Oy Karelian Trains Ltd is a joint venture agreed on 23 November 2006 between Russian Railways (RZhD) and VR Group (Finnish Railways) to facilitate the operation of international express passenger rail services between Helsinki, Finland and Saint Petersburg, Russia. Karelian Trains is registered in Helsinki; VR and RZhD both own 50% of the shares. The services are branded as Allegro.

Services were launched on December 12, 2010 using Alstom Pendolino trains ordered in September 2007. Investments will also be made in infrastructure to enable higher speeds to be achieved. Together, this has cut journey times between the two cities from the previous 5½ hours to about 3 hours. There are four daily train departures each direction, compared to two for the older service. The daily night train Helsinki-Moscow will continue like before.

Visas are required for many foreign nationals, including Finns, to enter Russia and for Russians to enter Finland. Passport and customs checks is conducted on board the trains. Traditionally the passport and customs checks has delayed the trains at least 30 minutes according to the time table (1 hour for 30 km Vyborg-the border).

Keith Noel Emerson (born 2 November 1944, Todmorden, West Yorkshire) is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, The V.I.P.'s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice (which evolved from P.P. Arnold's band), he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ELP), one of the early supergroups, in 1970. Following the breakup of ELP, circa 1979, Emerson had modest success with Emerson, Lake & Powell in the 1980s as well as with 3, with the album To the Power of Three. ELP reunited during the early 1990s, releasing the album Black Moon. Emerson also reunited The Nice in 2002 for a tour. His latest album, Keith Emerson Band featuring Marc Bonilla, was released in 2008.

Along with contemporaries Richard Wright of Pink Floyd, Tony Banks of Genesis, and Rick Wakeman of Yes, Emerson is widely regarded as one of the top keyboard players of the progressive rock era. Allmusic refers to Emerson as "perhaps the greatest, most technically accomplished keyboardist in rock history".