VZCZCXRO8734
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTL #0520/01 2251239
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 131239Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY TALLINN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0067
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 2540
RUEHSK/AMEMBASSY MINSK 0229

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 TALLINN 000520 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL RU ECON EN
SUBJECT: THE ESTONIA-RUSSIA BORDER: MANY ROADS TO GRIDLOCK 
 
REF: (A) TALLINN 347 (B) August 2006 Lee-Lane e-mails 
 
¶1. (U) Summary: Extended delays in recent months for 
truckers waiting to transport goods from northeastern 
Estonia into Russia have raised many questions about 
possible causes, especially in the wake of Bronze Soldier- 
related transit disruptions since April.  It is unclear 
whether politics or simple inefficiency on the Russian side 
has caused the delays.  While Estonian officials cite a 
combination of political motives, anti-smuggling efforts, 
inadequate Russian infrastructure, and bureaucracy, they 
stress that working-level relations with their Russian 
colleagues are still good.  The present situation is 
largely a repeat of last summer, which officials expect to 
abate by September, but return on a seasonal basis for the 
foreseeable future.  End summary. 
 
¶2. (U) Estonia's border with Russia is not only a key 
transit point for goods traveling between the two 
countries, but also the easternmost EU border with Russia. 
The recent increase in delays at the principal crossing 
point in Narva has therefore been of interest beyond these 
two economies.  [Note: The Estonian Tax and Customs 
Authority estimates that 85-90 percent of outbound cargo 
transit is of non-Estonian origin transiting from elsewhere 
in the EU.  End Note]  The recent spike in wait times for 
trucks crossing into Russia has grown from an average of 
one day to as long as four or five days,  raising many 
questions about the cause of the delays, especially coming 
as they do in the wake of politically-motivated trade 
disruption measures of recent months.  (Reftel A) 
 
¶3. (U) It has not been uncommon for commercial trucks 
crossing into Russia from neighboring Latvia to experience 
similar lines 800-1200 vehicles long during recent months. 
Extended delays were also a problem in the summer of 2006, 
when explanations ranged from the diversion of trucks 
through Estonia to avoid new Belarus road taxes, to 
political motivations in Moscow related to the Estonian- 
Russian border treaty.  [Note.  Russian President Vladimir 
Putin had also announced a new crackdown on cross-border 
corruption in the summer of 2006.  End Note] Waits in 
border queues spiked in late June of 2007, going from an 
average line of 149 trucks on the Estonian side waiting 1.1 
days to cross, rising to an average of 329 trucks in line 
waiting up to 5 days to cross since late June.  While 
Estonian officials we met with said they expect the long 
waits to diminish by the end of August and increase again 
around year-end, they offered several observations about 
causes of this summer's delays. 
 
Power Politics, or Old-Fashioned Russian Inefficiency? 
 
¶4. (SBU) We met with Margus Noorma and Dmitri Jegorov of 
the Estonian Tax and Customs Board (EMTA) in Tallinn, as 
well as with a border inspector and the Deputy Head of 
Customs at the Narva checkpoint.  The EMTA officials at the 
border in Narva acknowledged that some of the recent 
slowdown may be politically directed since the Bronze 
Soldier controversy in late April and early May, but they 
also said working-level contact with their Russian 
counterparts across the river remained cordial and 
cooperative.  They noted that since the 30 percent slowdown 
in crossing volume beginning June 27, they had received 
four different stories from the Russian side explaining the 
delays: road repairs, staffing shortages during summer 
vacation, slow compliance with mandated computer upgrades, 
and greater pressure at other Russian border crossings for 
resources.  They did say, however, that their Russian 
contacts seemed uncomfortable talking about the reasons for 
the delays.  Vitali Sergeyev, Director of the Narva 
Business Advisory Service, added that "For every 1 Russian 
working at the customs office, 3 are drinking coffee." 
 
¶5.  (U) Our contacts at the border said that out of 
Russia's 120 border crossings, only three of them are with 
Estonia.  Meetings with their Russian counterparts in 
Moscow made it clear that problems on Russia's southern and 
Asian borders are relatively of much greater concern, 
making the Estonian border a lower priority.  Furthermore, 
in spite of a tripling of gross cargo crossing the border 
since Estonian accession to the EU, the Russian customs 
service has made no significant upgrades to its 
infrastructure since 1995, and is not properly equipped to 
address increases in traffic.  [Note.  Russia's Finnish 
border checkpoints enjoy higher capacities since Finland 
itself funded infrastructure expansion on both sides of the 
border there.  End Note.] 
 
Looking on the Bright Side... 
 
TALLINN 00000520  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Back in Tallinn, Deputy Directors-General Jegorov 
and Noorma stressed that cooperation with their Russian 
counterparts remains good on areas such as anti-smuggling, 
fraud prevention, information transfer, and implementation 
of laws, all of which they engage Russia on within the 
framework of an EU Working Group that convenes every three 
months.  Data they provided on truck crossings for January- 
July 2007 showed that while the number of trucks queuing on 
the Estonian side varied anywhere from 50-400 trucks (a 
wait of about 3 to 111 hours), the number actually crossing 
into Russia every 24 hours stayed roughly constant within a 
band of 100-150 per day.  They attributed the June 27 drop 
to 70-100 crossings per day to the many reasons cited 
above.  In recent days, the Narva mayor has criticized the 
GOE in the press for not coordinating more closely with the 
city and doing more to resolve the long delays.  However, 
when we met with Georgi Ignatov, Director of the Narva 
Economic Development Department, he admitted that the 
problem is essentially one between the Estonian and Russian 
governments and respective ministries, in which the city 
can have little influence.  There is an agreement between 
the two countries stating that not fewer than 150 trucks 
per day will cross at Narva, but there is no mechanism to 
enforce this, and the Estonians see no great urgency to do 
anything to increase the flow of goods.  The vast majority 
of them are of non-Estonian origin, and the GOE receives no 
transit fees as it does for rail cargo, but rather, as one 
said: "The trucks just ruin our roads." 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Comment.  As we saw with extensive crossing 
delays in the summer of 2006, explanations this summer 
range from pragmatic to political in nature.  While post- 
Bronze Soldier rhetoric from the Kremlin clearly played a 
role in the slowdown of rail transit through Estonia and 
the temporary closure of the Narva bridge, it is unclear 
whether this is the case with the recent slowdown of truck 
transit.  Our contacts in Estonian Customs had nothing bad 
to say about the working-level cooperation with their 
counterparts on the Russian side, but worried that if 
hostile talk from Moscow continues, that could worsen 
things at the border.  So far, the GOE seems fairly 
confident that wait times at the border will return to 
normal soon.  End Comment. 
 
PHILLIPS