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The lines of trucks at the two border crossings on the Latvian-Russian border have increased over the weekend and that together there were over 1,600 trucks in Latvia waiting to enter Russia.
State Border Guard officials have informed that as of Monday morning some 1,100 trucks were lined up at the Terehovo crossing, while there were 550 waiting at Grebnevo.
That is approximately 80 more than were waiting on Sunday morning, officials said, while on Friday morning there was a total 700 trucks on the two border points.
The lengthening truck lines occurred despite a report late last week that a Latvian-Russian commission had agreed to a number of measures to reduce the congestion, which threatens to harm many businesses and ruin many truckers’ New Year’s celebrations.
The lines began forming two weeks ago after Russia’s customs authority introduced a more stringent inspection of all trucks entering the country due to a phenomenon as old as mankind itself: theft.
Russian officials, including Ambassador to Latvia Alexander Veshnyakov, claimed there were a few “black sheep” among Latvian truckers who were stealing cargo belonging to Russian companies.
While not denying that instance of theft had taken place, Latvian foreign ministry officials said that the harsh inspections were unjustified considering that the stolen goods accounted for only 0.018 percent of all goods delivered to Russia. What’s more, the Latvian side that the firms guilty of theft had been liquidated.
However, Russian officials said that they had warned Latvia of the problem months ago and had no choice but to take action after Latvian authorities failed to undertake measures. In August, for instance, the Russian customs service sent a letter to the Latvian customs board claiming that 11 trucks with cargo destined for Russia never arrived.
“Everything will depend on which measures Latvian authorities will take to get rid of the black sheep among truckers,” Veshnyakov was quoted by the Baltic News Service as saying.
“When warning are ignored, requirements become very strict,” the ambassador added. “But I would to stress that this is not about closing the border.”
Latvijas Auto, an association of logistics companies, said it would propose Russia a new scheme for compensating losses due to stolen cargo. According to the current scheme, Latvijas Auto guarantees cargo deliveries up to €60,000.
In August Russia imposed similar measures against Lithuania’s trucking industry.
Source Baltic reports
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