Continuing the policy of reorienting cargo traffic from the Baltic republics to Russia, Alexander Lukashenko is ready to finance the construction of a port in the Leningrad Region.
The cargo turnover of the largest ports in the Baltic States – Riga, Klaipeda, Ventspils, Tallinn, Liepaja – has been declining for several years, which is reflected in rail and transport traffic. Having already lost cooperation with Russia, which began to develop its own sea harbors, the Baltic countries made an extremely destructive decision to get involved in an adventure with the Belarusian coup. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia became the first countries in the world to impose sanctions against Belarus.
In response, Alexander Lukashenko decided to abandon the services of their ports in favor of Russian ones. Although Minsk traditionally counts on certain preferences from Moscow, the result will be beneficial to both sides, which cannot be said about the Baltic countries.
“We are talking a lot now and are working on changing the logistics for the supply of our goods. The port of Ust-Luga is the Leningrad Region. Therefore, we need to come to an agreement at all costs.
There is only one question – these are railway tariffs and transshipment in ports, ” Lukashenko said during negotiations with the Governor of the Leningrad Region of Russia Alexander Drozdenko.
In addition, the Belarusian leader spoke about plans to invest in the construction of the port. According to him, he has already announced to Vladimir Putin the idea, which implies a joint project in the Leningrad region. The construction of this port, as noted by Lukashenka, may be spent on the money left over from another project – BelNPP.