Russian President promises action on truck queues at border

Putin invites Halonen to visit Finno-Ugric nations

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Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Finnish President Tarja Halonen on Thursday that the problem of queues of trucks waiting to cross the border into Russia, and causing massive traffic problems in the southeast of Finland would be eased.
      Putin arrived in Helsinki on Thursday in advance of Friday’s EU-Russia summit meeting. The two leaders held talks in the early evening. At a joint press conference Putin said that the volume of goods traffic has increased so much that the existing infrastructure is inadequate to deal with the problem.
      He said that some of the trucks, which now cause backups of up to 50 kilometres on the Finnish side, could be taken by ship directly from Germany to ports in Russia, without transiting Finland. He also suggested that some of the trucks could be carried by train.
      Russia has also promised to reduce red tape at the border. Currently, lorries crossing into Russia have to deal with officials from seven different government institutions. Igor Levitin, Russia’s Minister of Transport, recently promised that Russian border inspections would involve only border guards and customs officials. The Russian Transport Inspection Authority (RTI) will soon have its post moved away from the border. Finnish Customs say that the RTI inspections are responsible for the greatest bottlenecks.
      Putin also noted that exchange of information should be improved, and new border crossings need to be set up.
     
President Halonen observed that Finnish and Russian officials have similar views on the situation and on the actions that need to be taken.
      "People in Russia and Finland can be sure that sufficient attention will be paid to the situation, both now and when the prime ministers meet", Halonen said.
      Transport Minister Levitin said clearing border checks should not take more than an hour. At present, the wait can be as long as two days.
      Last week, Finland’s Minister of Transport and Communications Susanna Huovinen (SDP) blamed the situation on Russian customs. Now she says that there is room for improvement on both sides of the border.
     
Also at Thursday’s press conference the two presidents announced that Halonen would travel to Russia next summer to meet with representatives of Finno-Ugric peoples.
      The Finnish President said that she has spoken with Putin several times on the issue of ethnic groups living in Russia who are related to the Finns.
      The Russian President said that it is understandable and commendable that Finland is interested in the conditions in which their relative nations live.
     
On the dispute over Polish meat exports to Russia, which is overshadowing the EU-Russia summit, Putin said that it is still possible to solve the problem.
      He denied reports that Russia was planning to extend the ban on meat imports to cover the whole European Union.
      Putin also said that Russia has no complaints about the quality of Polish food products; in his view, the problem is that Poland cannot guarantee the quality of food originating in other countries, which passes through Poland in transit.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Head of Finnish Customs says EU partly to blame for truck queues at Russian border (23.11.2006)
  Line of trucks at eastern border costs millions of euros a day (9.11.2006)
  Finland to take up illegal truck fees with Russian authorities next month (24.10.2006)
  Russia denies allegations of oppression of Finno-Ugric Mari people (30.5.2005)
  Election result brings wave of political reprisals against indigenous intelligentsia of Mari Republic (8.3.2005

Helsingin Sanomat