The City of St. Petersburg has promised to keep open a road to the container terminal run by the Finnish company Container Finance in the port of Kronstadt outside the Russian city.
The promise comes after Russian traffic police and the Russian real estate authority had Rosstroi had blocked lorry traffic to the harbour.
The agreement on road access came in round table discussions aimed at resolving the dispute over the land that Container Finance has leased for its activities.
The talks, which began on Monday, brought together top figures of Rostroi and Container Finance, as well as Aleksandr Vahmistrov, Vice Governor of St. Petersburg, Kronstadt Mayor Vladimir Skrajabin, as well as representatives of the police and traffic police. St. Petersburg Governor Valentina Matviyenko has issued an order that the container terminal and Rosstroi must find a way to co-exist.
The harbour company had to build a new road to the terminal when Rosstroi blocked a previous route.
Container Finance and Rosstroi have been locked in a dispute over a five-hectare plot of land which the city of St. Petersburg has leased to the Finnish company. Last week the dispute intensified, when Rosstroi tore down the fence surrounding the property, and representatives of Container Finance attempted to prevent the action by using themselves as human shields.
Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva (Nat. Coalition) said that he would take up the issue with Russian officials.
