Russia, Latvia work out border bottlenecks

Latvian and Russian officials reached an agreement in Moscow on the issuance of border-crossing licenses for next year, though it is unclear how effective this will be in reducing bottlenecks that have made passage of the Terehova-Buracki checkpoint an agonizing affair.

The meeting of the license distribution commissions of Latvia and Russia on Nov. 11–13, which meets annually to agree upon license distribution for crossing the Latvian-Russian border, decided to increase the number of licenses by 25 percent - from 12,000 to 16,000 - for regular truckers who cross the border.

Talis Straume, head of the Latvian delegation of the transit license distribution commission and also head of the auto transport department, said that negotiations were successful particularly due to the additional border crossing licenses.

"The meeting was held in a pleasant atmosphere," Straume said.

Latvia was represented by officials from the Customs Department, Transport Ministry, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other related institutions.

Coming after a number of diplomatic complaints due to long lines of trucks and cars at the checkpoint, the agreement was seen as crucial in developing bilateral relations and easing tensions among frustrated truckers who have been forced to endure days-long waits on the border.

During October the long truck lines at Terehova became more the rule than the exception. According to data provided by Dace Udre, head of Latvian Border Guard's press service, the average daily line of trucks waiting to go through customs was 450 trucks.

Earlier, on Sept. 16, a crisis occurred after the truck line reached some 8 kilometers (about 410 trucks and 120 motorcars). Truckers and drivers vented their anger by blocking approaching roads, forcing Russian authorities to increase manpower and thereby reduce processing time from 6 to 11 trucks per hour.

The situation had become so frustrating that Latvia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs submitted on Oct. 25 a note to Russia's ministry requesting that Russia accelerate the pace of checkpoint processing at Terehova-Buracki.

The note expressed dissatisfaction with down-times that truckers accrued as a result of the border lines and said the border crossing did not correspond to international standards and created a disbalance in trade between the two countries that are attempting to re-establish economic links.

The subject also came up during Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov's visit to Riga Nov. 9.

"This is politics, which influences the foreign affairs of two countries, and we must help each other to solve our problems," said Straume, the head of auto transport department of Latvia.

One of the reasons for the longer queues, according to sources, was an increase in border fees leveled on Lithuanian truckers by Belarus, forcing Lithuanian haulers to bypass the country on the way home from Russia.

Kalvis Vitolins, administration director for Latvian Customs, said that Belarus raised fee on Lithuanian truckers since it blames them for increasing the amount of smuggled goods into the country.

"This is the problem of Belarus and a bit of Russia, and the reason for additional fee is very serious. Lithuanian truckers have had a lot of custom fee offenses in these countries," said Vitolines.

Besides, he said, since Russia is not ready to increase its workload, the only real solution is to have the Belarus transit fee for Lithuanian truckers canceled.

"It is impossible to find a single guilty party," said Vitolins. "But the most important thing now for Lithuania is regaining its reputation."

Approximately 450 truckers who lose $300 daily for the down-time, he said.

One proposed solution would be to devote the Grebneva checkpoint to Lithuanian truckers and Terehova for the rest.

"The Terehova checkpoint usually can handle throughput of only 120 trucks a day, and to avoid any strikes it recently improved throughput by boosting manpower so that now it can process 180 trucks per day," said Julijs Vaituzs, vice director of the auto traffic department, adding that three days' down-time is still more than truckers can afford.

After deciding to direct part of the trucks to the Grebneva checkpoint, the truck line at Terehova has shortened to about 100 trucks, and "the situation on both crossing-points becomes similar" says Dace Udre.

Officials also talked over a number of other border-crossing problems. Russia's Transportation Ministry promised to contact Russia's Customs Department to intensify the processes of crossing the border, as well as to appoint the individuals who would be responsible for resolving emergency situations on the border.