Russia on Wednesday shut down traffic through some of its last remaining railway border crossings with the European Union.
The move, announced in a government order on Tuesday evening, suspends all movement of persons, vehicles, goods, and cargo by rail with Finland, Estonia and Latvia from July 1. The Foreign Ministry has formally notified the Baltic nations of the decision, but offered no explanation for the “temporary” closures, nor any indication of when they might be lifted.
The affected checkpoints and crossings with Finland include St. Petersburg’s Finland Station, Vyborg and Svetogorsk in the Leningrad region, and Värtsilä and Lütta in Karelia. Pechory on the Estonian frontier and Pytalovo near Latvia are also closed.
Many of the Finnish railway crossings had already seen little or no passenger traffic since direct rail links between Finland and Russia were suspended following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Finland then closed its entire eastern border in December 2023 over what it described as Russian-orchestrated “instrumentalized migration.”
By contrast, the crossings at Pechory on the Estonian border and Pytalovo near Latvia had remained operational until now.
Direct flights between Russia and the EU remain suspended, while land crossings are limited and subject to national restrictions.
The announcement comes as Russia builds out military infrastructure along its frontier with NATO.
A recent joint investigation by Sweden’s SVT and Norway’s NRK found that Russia was building new barracks, ammunition depots and logistics facilities near its borders with Finland, Norway and the Baltic states, with plans to eventually station up to 115,000 troops there once the war in Ukraine eases.