TALLINN 's As lines of trucks waiting to cross the border into Russia persist in Estonia, Finland and Latvia, the countries' leaders have promised to raise the issue with the European Union and Russia.
This morning, around 500 trucks were queued up in Narva, northeastern Estonia, 263 at the Koidula checkpoint in the southeast and 155 at Luhamaa, also in the southeast, a spokeswoman for the Estonian Tax and Customs Board said. They are facing a wait of three to four days.
The situation is similar on Finland and Latvia's eastern borders.
Finnish agency STT reported the line of waiting trucks stretched for about 20 kilometers at the Vaalimaa crossing. In Latvia, 280 vehicles were waiting to enter Russia at Grebnevo and 796, at Terekhovo.
Latvian Prime Minister Aigars Kalvitis said he was going to raise the issue at a meeting with the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, in Brussels today.
Finnish President Tarja Halonen, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, intends to talk about the border congestion with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who arrives in Helsinki today, STT said.
