Baltic States – CIS, Latvia, Legislation, Port, Railways, Transport

If Russia's elite decided to divert cargos to other ports, business representatives loyal to it most probably would follow the instructions, the Security Police said.

Regardless of tensions in political relations and public statements about diverting cargos to Russian ports, no major fluctuations in total cargo turnover at Latvian ports were observed during the reporting period, the Security Police said in the public section of its annual report for 2015. Moreover, Russian companies continued investing in the Latvian transit industry last year which signals their willingness to keep using Latvian ports in the future.

But changes in the top management of the Latvian state-owned railway company and Latvijas Dzelzcels and Russian Railways, the Russian national railway company, in the second half of 2015 gave rise to concerns about a decline in rail freight in 2016. The amount of freight reloaded at Latvian ports in the first months of this year confirms those concerns.

Various Russian officials have been speaking about the plans to divert cargos to Russia's own ports for quite a while but so far it could not be done due to the underdeveloped railway infrastructure in Russia. Yet, diversification of the freight consignor countries remains vital, although no major progress was made in this respect last year, the Security Police said.