Minsk’s Pandemic Restrictions on Vehicles Transiting Belarus Creating Problems for Russia, Moscow Expert Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 30 – Minsk has been much criticized for it failure to introduce the kind of anti-pandemic measures its neighbors  has, but the limitations it has introduced on vehicles transiting the country east to west and back, limitations ostensibly put in place to block the spread of the virus, are creating problems for Russian shippers, Ilya Zakharkin says.

            Indeed, the Moscow transportation expert at the Institute of Physics and Technology says, these limitations raise serious questions about Belarus as a route in and out for Russian and Eurasian Economic Community shippers (ritmeurasia.org/news--2020-04-30--naskolko-bezopasny-transportnye-koridory-v-belorussii-v-period-pandemii-48769).

            Despite the closing of most borders in the region, Belarus “as is well known did not choose the path of self-isolation while attempting to preserve the maximum goods flow through its territory,” Zakharkin says.  As recently as April 23, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that “we do not intend” to close the borders but will ensure that those transiting don’t spread the virus.

            Minsk as early as the end of January toughened health inspections at the borders, allowing for blocking the entry of those who appeared to be ill and requiring detailed declarations of where drivers and passengers had been to determine if they were from coronavirus hotspots.

            Then, on March 19. Minsk introduced restrictions on the routes drivers could use, the places where they could stop, and the time they could be in the country – a single day except in extraordinary circumstances – and announced heavy fines for those who violated any of these rules.

            Drivers could also be fined under the new rules if they did not have means of individual health defense such as masks. Those who violated that provision or any other restriction are now subject to fines of up to 500 euros (650 US dollars), fines that could in principle be collected by any of a number of Belarusian state agencies.

            Minsk introduced these measures first and foremost against truckers from Poland, the Baltic countries and Ukraine; but its insistence that its rules complied with the existing rules of the Eurasian Economic Union, a group of countries organized and dominated by Russia, suggest it will be extended to long-haul truckers from them as well.

            The one-day transit requirement puts drivers in a Catch 22 situation, Zakharkin says. They can either stop for rest and meet rules governing how long they can drive and pay the Belarusian authorities 500 euros or press on, violate those rules, and face even larger fines in their home countries. It’s “obvious” what they will choose to do – and Minsk will make money.

             The Belarusian authorities are making the collection of such fines even more likely because they do not give drivers lists of the approved stopping places and those that have been approved do not have adequate parking for more than a few trucks at any one time. Violations are thus built into the system, the Moscow expert suggests.

            What all this shows, Zakharkin continues, is that Minsk “in fact has established certain corridors for the transit of goods on land” and that the arrangements it has made in the name of protecting the health of its population are as a result “reducing the attractiveness of the Belarusian route for shippers.”

            “In the future,” because Minsk gives no sign that it will lift these restrictions anytime soon, all this will “have a negative impact on the growth of the transit potential of the republic” by creating problems with its neighbors in general and Russia in particular.