Baltic States – CIS, Energy, Estonia, Oil, Port, Railways, Transport

"The market is the same for everyone, continued cooperation with Russian Railways is necessary when it comes to all shipments," Solokov told the Estonian daily Postimees. He said the reasons for the reduction in transit were not political but economic.

Sokolov described cooperation between the railway companies as essential. "I know that cooperation between the railway managers of Estonia and Russia exists. I kept an eye on the situation with regard to the decline myself and we will try and continue cooperation."

It was reported last week that the volume of rail transit traffic between Estonia and Russia has halved, from 12 to six train pairs a day. Ten years ago, in 2006, Estonian Railways received 32.4 trains from Russia per day on the average.

"The reason is economic – oil prices are down, Russia is producing less heavy fuel oil and has found better opportunities for selling it via Russian ports. It's as simple as this," the CEO of Estonian Railways, Sulev Loo, told BNS at the time.