What the Baltic states are ready for to preserve Russian transit

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Having let the industry inherited from the USSR for scrap metal and at the same time ditching its fishing and agricultural industries, the Baltic States will soon finally lose their last trump card in the form of transit gates to the West for Russia and Belarus. Now a small but proud Estonia has entered the fight with Lithuania and Latvia for the cargo flows flowing to the East.

According to the Estonian Railways (Eesti Raudtee), the passenger traffic in 2020 decreased by one third, which can still be explained by the coronavirus restrictions, but the carrier also lost 13% of its container cargo. In Tallinn, the alarm is sounding, demanding to find new transit countries. The head of the railway company was replaced ahead of schedule. It is reported that the new one, Kaido Zimmermann, is required to "restore the reputation of Eesti Raudtee outside the country", "to attract international cargo flows", for which the top manager will need "knowledge of Russian business culture."



All in all, there is a “new thinking” in Tallinn. It is clear that such changes in the minds of the Estonian elite do not come from a good life. The problem with all three Baltic republics is that the West has not been able to provide them with an adequate alternative to economic cooperation with the East, to which they are tied historically and geographically.

Thus, the new transport corridor called Rail Baltica, which is so relied upon in Riga, Vilnius and Tallinn, simply cannot replace Russian and Belarusian transit. The railway is still under construction, but in Brussels money is already "squeezed" on it, forcing the Balts to bravely threaten European officials with blocking a single fund for compensation for damage. Even when it is completed, there is nowhere to get enough for economic payback of Rail Baltica for freight traffic. This is purely military project, which provides for the replacement of the gauge from the Russian standard to the European so that NATO has the ability to train by rail without the need to "change shoes" to quickly transfer its combat machinery and military units to the East, to our borders. On it, then, if something happens, the destroyed tanks will be taken back to the West for repairs and wounded soldiers for treatment.

For the same reason, the prospects for another infrastructure project, to which Estonia wants to join, are not too bright. We are talking about a possible underwater tunnel between Helsinki and Tallinn, which could connect the Baltic States to Finland with a single rail network. To build it, you will first need to build an artificial island in the Gulf of Finland, and the length of the underwater part of the tunnel varies from 50 to 70 kilometers. It will have to have two parts, passenger and cargo, the speed will be only 20-30 minutes. It is planned to place wind turbines on the island to provide the entire system with “green” electricity.

Sounds pretty, but there are serious problems. The term for the implementation of such an infrastructure project is estimated at 5-7 years, and the cost - in the amount of 9 to 13 billion euros. This is a lot, a lot, especially when you consider that even in Estonia itself there are justified doubts about the possibility of loading the tunnel for its payback. Whether the EU is ready to pay for this project is a big question. Tallinn tried to look for Chinese investors and even found someone, but it is not a fact that everything will "grow together" exactly the way it would like. Beijing does make large-scale investments all over the world, but it does so only on "its" terms, which are more like voluntary bondage.

As a result, the Baltic states have no other real options other than Russia and Belarus. Thus, the aforementioned new head of Eesti Raudtee Zimmerman directly proposed to restore partnership with our country. And Estonia itself volunteered at its own expense to electrify the section of the Russian railway from Kingisepp to the border Ivangorod. Can you imagine that? Tallinn intends to completely switch its railway infrastructure to electricity in order to reduce costs and, at the same time, harmful emissions. Estonians themselves are ready to pay for electrification from the Russian side, in order to open communication between St. Petersburg and Tallinn in the future. That's what they've been driven to.
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  1. +5
    12 February 2021 13: 14
    Yes, recognize Crimea as Russian, LDNR as independent, stop barking at Russia and you will be full, drunk and your nose in tobacco. laughing
    1. +1
      13 February 2021 12: 25
      Who should be recognized as an independent state? LDNR? I doubt very much that they themselves will survive. Why? What does Russia lack and what can they not give? The rest of the countries are not at all interested in them as a subject of relations. In the 90s, money was already printed for the Siberian Republic. At Goznak. The result was that now the Perm Territory is in the Volga Federal District. Why? This is a weight for nationalists from Bashkiria and Tatarstan. You don't have to get into foreign policy if you don't know what's in your own country.
  2. +7
    12 February 2021 13: 18
    Let the NATO troops be withdrawn from their territory, sent to the prison bunks of the Hitlerite minions, then the Russian Federation can think about ... over their proposals
    1. +1
      12 February 2021 14: 33
      I agree. Without fulfilling political demands, economic ones are not so important.
    2. +1
      21 February 2021 05: 56
      Let them first return the monument to its place in Tallinn. Let them stop barking at Russia. It’s sick from their rabid Russophobia.
  3. +2
    12 February 2021 22: 14
    What the Baltic states are ready for to preserve Russian transit

    Yes, let them at least a second hole in their ... opera and make a tattoo "wellcome" over this hole!

    the length of the underwater part of the tunnel varies from 50 to 70 kilometers. It will have to have two parts, passenger and cargo, the speed will be only 20-30 minutes.

    You didn’t study mathematics there at school ??? Even if you take the minimum salary - 50 km in 30 minutes, this vehicle speed should be 100 km / h, well, this is still normal, many will master it. But 70 km in 20 minutes, this is a speed of 210 km / h !!! Not every sports car can handle this! Ali it will be a hohlyatsky hyperloop ??? .... Well, yes, yes! Well they are in the entom hyperloop as they will accelerate !!! .... and they will slip through the whole of Scandinavia ...... i.e. as usual, will be in flight ...
    For those who want to take these brakes into Russia, I would suggest that they accept them not even as regional centers, but like the Baltic region with three districts. There are about the same number of people in Yekaterinburg, Voronezh or Samara as in these outlandish republics (separately, of course).
  4. +2
    13 February 2021 00: 51
    The train left. Russia is no longer interested in any political demands. Estonians were 15 years late. Peculiarities of national character. lol
    Let's just look at Ust-Luga and ask ourselves: where to put all this? We have built port facilities, shipping terminals for different types of cargo, warehouses, railways. railways, gas processing plants, etc. People work, get paid. It was in the 90s that millions of people were thrown out of the factory gates and they, crazy with a lack of understanding of what was happening, went wherever they looked.
    Now the country is different. Those who propose to return transit to the Balts for the fulfillment of some political requirements simply do not understand anything in life and production. That's all, there is no turning back. And because the Balts have established themselves as inadequate partners and neighbors and because a lot of money has been spent, huge efforts have been spent, jobs have been created. And much more is underway.
    Putin will press such "partners" to the end.
    And this applies not only to the Balts. In Ukraine, too, they are confident that if they press the Natsiks, change the language law and begin to comply with the Minsk agreements, everything will become the same. Trade will appear, jobs will return.
    Jobs are not going back anywhere. Former Ukrainian products have been localized in the Russian Federation, modified both for the conditions of local enterprises, and in connection with the introduction of new materials, technologies, and the presentation of new performance requirements. And what, does someone really think that all this will be given to them? So that the day after tomorrow they have the roof again from conceit? And, for the love of non-brothers, to deprive their people of jobs and again jeopardize the country's defense? I strongly doubt it.
    And the Balts will not have any other transit, except for the Russian one. In order for Chinese transit to get to Estonia, oddly enough, it travels through the territory of the Russian Federation. So the Russian Federation will wrap it up in Ust Luga.
    And in order to fill the island in the Finnish Strait, you will need permission from Russia, because this is a radical change in the regime of navigation and the regime of water exchange, i.e. beloved ecology in the EU. The strait is quite narrow. And I do not think that the Russian Federation will give such permission.
    1. -3
      13 February 2021 02: 14
      Quote: boriz
      The train left.

      The narrowness of the whole topic is that Estonia is more than one transit. GDP growth is 3-4% per year. The EU is a huge market.
      1. +1
        13 February 2021 12: 48
        The fact is that, with sane behavior, you could keep transit forever and have it as a guaranteed basis of well-being. Now you are guaranteed not to have it.
        Finns are smarter than you. All the time after the Second World War, they maintained excellent relations with us. In response, the USSR and Russia have always provided them with better conditions both when buying their goods and when selling them theirs. As a result, they have always been a zone of well-being.
        And the EU market exists today, and in 6-9 months it will be blown away. Then you will gnaw your elbows. Those who are smarter in your leadership (those who see their future together with their country) have already understood everything, so they twitched. But it's' too late.
        And personally, a sudden inspiration awaits you.
        1. -3
          14 February 2021 10: 31
          Quote: boriz
          The fact is that, with sane behavior, you could keep transit forever and have it as a guaranteed basis of well-being

          Transit is shipping. If you carefully study the structure of Estonia's overhead lines, you will notice that Estonia mainly imports raw materials and exports this raw material already processed. Also, study the structure of Estonian GDP, the share of transit there is scanty. Transit is primitive.
    2. 0
      13 February 2021 13: 15
      Finnish not a strait, of course, a gulf.
    3. +1
      13 February 2021 15: 07
      In Ukraine, too, they are confident that if they press down on the Natsiks, change the language law and begin to comply with the Minsk agreements, everything will become the same.

      No one there thinks about it! Maybe only Medvedchuk with a handful of his supporters.)
  5. -5
    13 February 2021 02: 10
    As always, no figures for losses or impact on the whole of Estonia. To clarify the author 2018 and 2019 were profitable.
    1. +1
      13 February 2021 04: 28
      Show in figures please "the enormity of the" Estonian "market. What will we carry?
      1. -4
        13 February 2021 10: 28
        Quote: oderih
        Show in figures please "the enormity of the" Estonian "market. What will we carry?

        Show the numbers for his absence)) Salary in Estonia is 2,5 times higher than in the Russian Federation.
        1. +4
          13 February 2021 13: 04
          You are a strange person. You advertise your country to the people, and when people are sincerely interested in what your country can be interesting, you send them arrogantly. Im your Estonia and the hell did not fall to rummage in reference books. You, too, do not know and are not stupidly interested in what is good and interesting in Russia.
          For Russia there is Estonia, there is none at all - to spit and grind. Any communication and trade relations will be blocked - Russia simply will not notice it. But for you it will already be very unpleasant for you, and in a year at most it will be like death.
          They are still babysitting you only because in Estonia there are many not just Russians, but also citizens of the Russian Federation. Therefore, sometimes they help, contrary to the tendency to zero transit.
    2. +2
      13 February 2021 04: 31
      On the way to Estonia, the port of Ust-Luga has long since grown up with a turnover of over 100 million tons. Who will give you this tidbit?
      1. -5
        13 February 2021 10: 30
        Quote: oderih
        On the way to Estonia, the port of Ust-Luga has long since grown up with a turnover of over 100 million tons. Who will give you this tidbit?

        This prevents Estonia from developing. In 2019, the piece of iron earned 9 million euros. This is almost 800 million rubles.
        1. +2
          13 February 2021 13: 26
          So what? In this post, the author is 200% right.
          He is talking about the dynamics of traffic. These 9 million euros do not mean anything. So is the average salary, which is higher than in Russia. It should be compared with the costs.
          With such dynamics, the Estonian railway very soon will fall below the level of profitability. And there will be no railroad in Estonia. Transit lines feed the entire railway. network. If they stop - railway. will not be everywhere.
          Railway management and some people in the country's leadership understand this. Unlike you.
    3. 0
      13 February 2021 15: 10
      You also state without numbers.
  6. +3
    13 February 2021 07: 46
    Limitrophs do not even understand that by switching to the European railway track, they increase future costs, increase travel time and thereby devalue any of their offers.
    1. -8
      13 February 2021 10: 33
      Quote: oracul
      they increase future costs,

      There were costs when Estonia was in the USSR. As soon as you break away from you and growth outstripping yours began.
      Why is Finland so rich? The answer is simple. Was not with YOU!.
      1. +5
        13 February 2021 13: 52
        Your outlook is about 3 kopecks in size. Finland's well-being is based precisely on a loyal attitude towards the USSR and Russia. They did not join NATO. There were no foreign military personnel there. Nobody demanded more from them. But they had a sales market for the USSR and privileges in the supply of energy resources, timber and other goods from the USSR and the Russian Federation. The Finns are still very much on energy resources from the Russian Federation and do not worry about it at all.
        Due to your extreme youth, you do not know that, for example, footwear from Finland was sold in the USSR on a par with footwear from other CMEA countries. Although in terms of quality, they were far from Italian shoes at comparable prices. The USSR ordered ships at the Vyartsilya shipyards. And Finland did not have to spend money on a serious defense against anyone. The USSR is guaranteed not to attack them, and it would never occur to anyone else to attack a good neighbor of the USSR.
        What raw materials did the Finnish paper industry work on? The USSR did not drive round timber to just anyone. But Finland is always welcome. And so in everything.
        Finns are smarter than you. Talk to your fellow countrymen, who are older and smarter.
        This is the model of behavior that the Balts had to adhere to. It's bad that the mind was not enough.
        1. -4
          14 February 2021 10: 50
          Quote: boriz
          Your outlook is as small as 3 kopecks. The well-being of Finland is based precisely on a loyal attitude towards the USSR and Russia.

          Sweden, Norway and dozens of other countries too ?.
          The Finns at one time calmed more than one hundred thousand aggressors from the USSR and defended their independence. This is where the success is. Their success is not about being part of you.
          That you have not reached the standard of living in a finca by trading with her?
          1. +4
            14 February 2021 11: 20
            Sweden has exactly the same history as Finland. Two hundred years ago, ours once again nailed them and they accepted neutrality. They did not fight with anyone else, the armed forces built to the best of their ability, profited from all European wars, trading with both warring parties. It is clear that it did them good. Sometimes they yap in the direction of Russia, unrelenting inferiority complexes do not give rest (like you) but they are not going to attack, there are no territorial claims between us .. And Russia does not need anything more from them.
            Norway climbed on suddenly dumped hydrocarbons. The population is small, the military is small, and the income is plentiful. Hence the high standard of living. Now they have commissioned their last gas field, oil is also slowly running out.
            Plus Norway is full of hydroelectric power plants, that is, cheap electricity. This is also not their merit, such geography. This energy is not going anywhere.
            So soon they will switch to a mode of economy, living with money accumulated over the years of hydrocarbon abundance. They'll take care of herring again.
            The example of Norway will give you nothing. You have begun to destroy the existing source of electricity under pressure from the EU. The transit from Russia, due to their own stupidity, was lost. And you have nothing else. First of all, the brain.
            Because, first of all, you need to take good care of what you have.
            1. -3
              14 February 2021 12: 35
              Quote: boriz
              Sweden has exactly the same history as Finland.

              Well, maybe not even 200, but even 300 years ago.
              The crutches of Sweden are not yours but RI. Take an interest in the Soviet school. Was there even one good word about RI? Just smear it and FALSE. You are the successors of the USSR, but not RI.
              And then it turns out YOU and THEN ... Yes ..... We love other people's exploits for OURS.
              Why did you kill the relatives of Peter the Great?
              Read about the first assault on Narva by Peter 1. "Pickers".
              Everyone has long become smarter than you and are busy with their own affairs and do not go where they are not asked.
              And therefore they live BETTER and RICHER than you. And Finland and Sweden and Norway.
              1. +1
                16 February 2021 09: 02
                Quote: Vladest
                The crutches of Sweden are not yours but RI. Take an interest in the Soviet school. Was there even one good word about RI? Just smear it and FALSE. You are the successors of the USSR, but not RI.

                The Russian Federation may not be the de jure legal successor of the Republic of Ingushetia, but it is de facto. To deny this would be utter folly. So our "crutches" were all the same.
          2. 0
            16 February 2021 23: 06
            Quote: Vladest
            Their success is not about being part of you.

            .. and have you: remember how the Finns threw you with your participation in the construction and maintenance of SP1 / 2, huh? And remember how Kalev sagged after Alyosha's transfer? And how they were looking for a Russian representative with permits transport workers, and he was in Tallinn, but left in English: how many carriers went bankrupt?
            The topic is of course hackneyed - but tell the public about the "success" of vaccination

            Quote: boriz
            Your outlook is as small as 3 kopecks. The Finns are smarter than you .. This is a model of behavior that the Balts had to adhere to. It's bad that the mind was not enough.

            It's bad that they replaced the nationally oriented mind with an abstract EU / NATO one, it is necessary to speak with the decision makers, not the punks
  7. +2
    13 February 2021 15: 23
    You cannot even communicate with them if they do not restore monuments to Soviet soldiers, do not abolish the concept of non-citizens, until they restore all Russian schools and teach in Russian and ban all their Nazi organizations!
  8. 0
    13 February 2021 15: 53
    What the Baltic states are ready for to preserve Russian transit

    - Yeah ; and what can she go to ???
    - The only thing that impresses Russia in the Baltics ... is that the peoples themselves ... - Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians ... - do not get along very well with each other ... - No, economic reasons do not sound here ... - it's just that these peoples themselves do not love each other (this was also under the USSR) ...
    - With regard to freight traffic; then personally I was always surprised ... - and where does the money come from in these limitrophes at all ??? - "They steal", or what ??? -Hahah ... -No, well, you can't get hold of NATO food and handouts ... -So where ???
    - Well, take, for example ... - the same Estonia ... - Well, where did she get the money "for something" ??? - For the construction of something ???
    - Most likely, this compassionate Russia still cannot part with its "atavistic affection" and parental patronage of these, in fact ... - already "enemy limitrophics" ...
    - So he feeds them economically constantly, so he maintains trade relations with them and this allows them to earn a living ... - Well, what can you take from Russia ... - She's not China; which the

    Beijing does make large-scale investments all over the world, but it does so only on "its" terms, which are more like voluntary bondage.

    - Here, personally, I absolutely agree with the author of the topic ... - my plus to him for this ...
    - Well, as for the Baltics; then, of course ... - and this time Russia will give up slack and yield to the "tearful demands" of the Baltic states ... - exactly ... - as always - not tearful requests; namely, "tearful demands" ...
    - Well, what can you say ... - this is the happiness of the Baltics that Russia is so compassionate and tearful ...
    1. -3
      14 February 2021 10: 57
      Quote: gorenina91
      - and where does the money come from in these limitrophes at all ???

      By asking yourself questions, have you not learned to look for answers to them? The web is full of information. Estonia not only has this money, but it has the smallest debt in comparison with other EU members.
      Unlike the Russian Federation in Estonia, the industry is processing and not raw materials. ... More "Labor Productivity" find out what it is. In Estonia, it is higher than in the Russian Federation. Estonia is 111 times smaller than the Russian Federation in terms of population, but in terms of quality it is 1,5-2 times higher. That's all .. The rest of the homework is for you)))
      1. +2
        14 February 2021 11: 32
        The entire Baltic region in the 90s - early 2000s rose on the black (in short, on the resale of stolen goods) and white Russian transit, plus subsidies from the EU. And Estonia looked better than others thanks to its complete self-sufficiency in electricity, backed up by its own fuel. Everything is the legacy of the USSR. Now there is no transit, the EU is forcing the Narva TPP to close. Let's see how long you will last, when the income from transit disappears (has already disappeared), you have to buy electricity, after stopping the Narva TPP, Narva will need to be warmed up with something, the ESovskaya boob is empty.
      2. -1
        14 February 2021 12: 17
        Unlike the Russian Federation in Estonia, the industry is processing and not raw materials. ...

        - A very dirty beggar Baltic Sea ... - Who can it feed ??? - Estonian fish processing and canned goods ... - canning factories (fish) ... - who needs their products ... - today most likely they went bankrupt and began to show themselves a'la "sad sights" of American Detroit ... - Estonian cows ... - their milk, cheeses ... - other derivatives from agricultural ... - all this can be of sufficient quality; but who needs all this today ??? - To the Estonians themselves ??? - This is unlikely to raise the Estonian economy, at least to the level of Poland ... - Oh, yes ... - the Estonians have a "fix idea" ... - this is the level of Finland ... - Well ??? - And what, Finland itself ... - Does she dream of "hugs" with Estonia ??? - And even with Estonia, which ... as one of many, like her ... already performs the "functions of escort" NATO ... - And Finland still disdains and avoids this "trade" ... - Hahah ...
        - I personally don't understand ... - Where does Estonia get the money ??? - Or Estonia simply sometimes puts on "jewelry" inherited from it ... - even from the Soviet period and "makes a plezir" for itself ... - after all, it is still not allowed into the higher European society ...
        - It is part of the USSR ... - Estonia was a lady of high society ... - until it surrendered itself to the hands of the insidious West ... - And today she already does not earn money anywhere else; to make ends meet ...
        - Here again ... - personally I can only say, repeat what I have already said ... - It is Russia that continues to buy Estonian fish products; Estonian milk (maybe all this goes to the Leningrad region); buys some Estonian handicrafts ... - fabrics, clothes, shoes ... - well, something else ... - And this supports the Estonian economy ... - Estonia is small ... - that's enough for it. .. - And Russia does not advertise all these "relations" ... - Probably this is the case ... - Unhappy Russia ... - how many poor dissolute "former relatives" she has ... - everyone has to feed ...
        1. +2
          14 February 2021 12: 51
          Estonian fish processing and canned food producers ... - canneries (fish) ... - who needs their products ...

          The factories have already closed, and the fishermen are moving ... to Russia.

          - Estonia was a lady of high society ..

          Estonians are farmers, unable to build a toilet in their yard and shitting under the surrounding bushes.
          This is no joke. There, in the 20s and 30s, an explanatory movement was launched under the slogan "Every farm has a latrine." It also affected women's health not in the best way. But this did not help much, in the memoirs of the military who were included in 1940. the stench was noted everywhere as they passed the farms.
          https://rus.postimees.ee/2591710/tualetnye-tradicii-predkov-v-nashi-dni-mogut-shokirovat
          This is the most optimistic coverage of the problem. Estonians.
          And your impression of the Baltics is the result of the insane infusion of money there under the USSR.
        2. +1
          14 February 2021 13: 12
          By the way, my grandmother had a house in the Yaroslavl region, built in 1917, so the toilet there was very wisely arranged. Under a single roof there were: a residential part, then a non-residential building, where there was an entrance from the porch (it was used to store all sorts of things, then a barn. The toilet was in the barn, not a meter above the ground where the cow stood. Human waste was covered with straws along with cow dung and then they were taken out to the fields, like fertilizer for plowing.
          You didn't have to go outside to go to the toilet.
          1. -2
            14 February 2021 13: 25
            By the way, my grandmother had a house in the Yaroslavl region, built in 1917, so the toilet there was very wisely arranged.

            - Generally ... - it is interesting to "learn the world and compare" ...
            - Here comes the WWII, 1917 (and this is the 4th year of the war); and the people in Russia do not live in poverty at all ... - they build houses; playing weddings; harvesting ... - life goes on ... - And in Siberia before the "Kolchak times" ... in general there was "peace and quiet" ...
            - And during the Second World War ... - in Russia (in the USSR) ... - life just stopped ... - all around hunger, devastation, continuous disaster ...
  9. 0
    14 February 2021 00: 57
    Quote: Vladest
    As always, no figures for losses or impact on the whole of Estonia. To clarify the author 2018 and 2019 were profitable.

    Look who's Talking?
    Mister Balabol?
  10. -2
    17 February 2021 22: 32
    Have you lost your mind, people? Forget about the Tribals, have pride. And rightly above someone noticed, and where are our brand new ports where and the people who work there? Let's cut them to pat us on the cheek with approval: good, Waldemar, good. Ugh. ...