Russia's Border Closures with Finland, Estonia, Latvia to Have Minimal Economic Impact

PETROZAVODSK, July 1. /TASS/. Russia's closure of a number of border crossings with Finland, Estonia and Latvia since July 1 will have virtually no impact on the country's economy, Leonid Liminchuk, Chairman of the Committee on Economic and Industrial Policy, Energy, Housing and Utilities of the Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Karelia, told TASS in an interview.

"This is absolutely a technical issue. As we know, the Republic of Finland has already taken such actions unilaterally. Therefore, all logistics and all economic processes no longer take into account actually neighboring states. Accordingly, nothing will change for citizens. At the same time, it may not be very convenient for transit passengers traveling through the Republic of Estonia, because the main flow of people crossing the border was there. Logistics is becoming a little more expensive," the lawmaker said. "In general, there is practically no need to take into account the impact on economic processes," Liminchuk added.

The Russian government decreed earlier to close several railway border crossings on the state border with Latvia, Finland and Estonia from July 1. The movement of people, vehicles, goods and cargoes via the border crossings designated by the government was suspended.

The closed border crossings include St. Petersburg-Finlyandsky, Vyborg, Vyartsilya, Ljuttja and Svetogorsk (all of them for Finland), Pechory-Pskovskiye on the border with Estonia, and Pytalovo bordering on Latvia.