The USSR and Russian stamps that appeared in the early 1990s with Karelia overprints “Petroskoi” or “Petrozavodsk” and “Karjala” or “Karelia”, and later the original-design stamps issued in the name of Karelia, are speculative.
A large number of provisionals also appeared in modern Russia in the early 1990s. After price controls were lifted, the government of T. Gaidar set Russia’s economy adrift into a free market. As a result, for several years hyperinflation dominated the country. All of this affected postal operations as well. In 1992–1993 alone, six postal rate changes were introduced. The rapid rise in postal rates forced post offices across the country to resort to issuing various kinds of provisionals. At first, overprints were applied to USSR stamps that remained in stock, and revaluation handstamps were placed on postal stationery. As stocks of stamps and postal stationery ran out, issues of surrogate postage payment signs began to appear. This happened everywhere throughout the country. As always, alongside postal provisionals, various philatelic issues appeared that had nothing to do with the postal service.