Estonia complains about Russian customs

TOILA, Estonia (BNS) - During consultations held in this small town in the northeast of Estonia Dec. 13 and Dec. 14, Estonian Foreign Ministry officials notified their Russian counterparts of difficulties that have emerged in recent months in clearing truck cargoes at Russian customs.

In the last few months, Estonian trucks have to spend several days on the Russian border to get their cargoes cleared, a ministry spokesman said.

The Russian delegation promised to relay the message to the Russian customs authority.

The Estonian and Russian diplomats also discussed matters related to border crossing by the residents of border areas, and how to arrange the issue of one-year, multiple entry visas to the residents of regions adjacent to the state border at Estonian consulates in St. Petersburg and Pskov and at Russian consulates in Narva and Tartu.

The Estonian delegation raised the topic of border crossing by ethnic Estonians living in Abkhazia in the Caucasus, as a visa regime came into force between Russia and Georgia in that troubled region in December.

In the course of the second round of bilateral talks on border checkpoints held at Toila, the delegations prepared an intergovernmental agreement on checkpoints on the Estonian-Russian border.

The Estonian delegation for the Toila round of talks was led by Mart Piiskop, the director general of the Foreign Ministry's consular department. His opposite number from Russia was Mikhail Torsin, deputy director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's consular department.