Business news

3 Oct 2023

Lukashenko reveals details of new railroad project with Russia

MINSK, 3 October (BelTA) – Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko revealed the details of a new project with Russia to build a railroad line from Belarus to St. Petersburg as he spoke at a government meeting on 3 October to discuss the export of Belarusian goods, BelTA has learned.

According to the head of state, Belarus has to overcome many barriers and obstacles while exporting its goods. One of the bottlenecks is the supply of goods by railroad transport.

“We have left the Baltic ports, and are working within St. Petersburg. We are looking at the more northern ports of Murmansk (and these are millions of tonnes of cargo we have to supply). We are also working in the south of the Russian Federation through their ports. No one is preventing us in using the ports. However, I emphasize once again: the bottleneck issue is railroad deliveries, especially to St. Petersburg,” the president said.

In this regard, Aleksandr Lukashenko mentioned his recent talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which the parties discussed the possibility of implementing two new major projects. One of which concerns a railroad line from Belarus to St. Petersburg.

“We discussed the bottleneck issue, which is railroad transportation,” the Belarusian leader said. “I asked Deputy Prime Minister Anatoly Sivak and Prime Minister Roman Golovchenko to prepare presentation materials on all the bottleneck issues in the railroad direction to St. Petersburg ahead of my meeting with the Russian president, which is set to take place in the near future.”

According to the head of state, there is a large-scale option of implementing the project, i.e. by laying a second track several hundred kilometers long. There is also another option. “We can go back to what we had in the Soviet period and restore the track. By restoring it, we will significantly expand our product supply opportunities for the next few years,” the Belarusian leader stressed.

In his words, Vladimir Putin supported the idea. “He said that he had not considered the issue in detail and suggested discussing it at the next meeting.” We are planning this meeting [during the CIS summit in Bishkek in mid-October]. We will discuss the issues related to railroad supplies,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said, adding that the agenda of the meeting would also include the use of port capacities.

Following the meeting, the journalists asked Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belarus to Russia Dmitry Krutoi whether a unified decision was taken on the logistics prospects in Russia (in terms of both ports and railroads) or calculations were still being made in order not to miss all important aspects.

According to the ambassador, Belarus is using 19 Russian ports, including those of St. Petersburg, Novorossiysk, and the Far East to export its goods. Some Belarusian companies independently negotiate with them on the shipment of goods.

“But the key volumes, of course, are supervised by the government, ministers and specialized working groups,” the ambassador said. The main focus here on the port capacities of St. Petersburg and Murmansk.

In Murmansk, Belarus is considering two main ports and two alternative ones. The country is currently shipping basic batches of pilot goods through the ports of Murmansk in order to calculate the economic component and draw up a business plan.

As for St. Petersburg, there are several ports to use there as well. “They [in Russia] have already understood the convenience and prospects of working with Belarusians. The bottleneck issue of railroad transportation has arisen,” Dmitry Krutoi said. There are two ways to resolve the situation. They have been reported to the leaders of the two states, and the presidents are expected to make final decisions on the issue during their next meeting.

According to the ambassador, one of the possible options (the simplest one) is to restore railroad stations in Russia. “There is only a question of money here. Russian Railways has part of the funds, and the rest is the resources. Decisions need to be made at the government level of Russia, since those are their stations,” he said. “In principle, there will be enough volumes for the medium term. We may not make any investments here.”



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