To Boost Shipbuilding, Russia’s Transportation Ministry wants to Ban All Ships Older than 40 Years from Entering Russia’s Harbors But the Results are Likely to Be Disastrous

Paul Goble     

            Staunton, Nov. 27 – Russia’s transportation ministry has come up with a draft law that would ban all ships older than 40 years from entering Russian harbors, a measure intended to stimulate shipbuilding in a country where 70 percent of its merchant ships are more than 25 years old with many far older.

            The measure would allow ships aged 30 to 40 years to enter harbors but only if they paid additional tolls.  Experts say Russian yards couldn’t build enough ships fast enough to compensate and that if the measure passes, shipping costs would go up by 45 percent or more (vedomosti.ru/business/articles/2025/11/27/1158444-mintrans-predlozhil-ne-puskat-v-porti-grazhdanskii-flot-starshe-40-let, ru.thebarentsobserver.com/mintrans-rossii-predlozil-zapretit-zahod-v-porty-dla-staryh-sudov/441505 and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2025/06/russian-yards-cant-build-replacements.html).

            And this points not only to the problems that increasingly infect Russian development but also means that people along the Northern Sea Route and in other distant parts of the Russian Federation will face higher prices at best and likely shortages of key goods as well in the coming years.