Yet Another Critical Putin Project to Support Northern Sea Route Suspended for Lack of Funds, Reducing Russia's Ability to Export Coal

Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 30 – When Putin announces a project in support of the Northern Sea Route or indeed anything else, it gets extensive coverage in both the Russian and international media; but when the lack of funds force suspension or even cancellation, something that is increasingly happening, that receives little attention from the media at all.

            The latest case is the suspension of efforts to complete a 50 km rail line in support of the Lava port near Murmansk. Announced in 2022, construction has been suspended because Russian Rail doesn’t have the money to pay the builders (ru.thebarentsobserver.com/novosti/u-rossii-net-deneg-ctoby-dostroit-zeleznuu-dorogu-k-portu-lavna/449749).

            Earlier this year, Russian officials were proclaiming that the Lavna port had reached “67 percent of its design capacity;” but already it isn’t handling that amount of coal because there is no track to carry the cargo to the port itself, yet another bottleneck blocking the realization of plans for the NSR.

            In reporting this development, The Barents Observer says that “a similar situation prevails at the Murmansk Sea Trade Port, where a steady decline in cargo turnover is being recorded—also due to the coal sector. By the end of 2025, cargo handling had contracted by approximately 30%, and the downturn accelerated in early 2026.”

But “even if the state manages to secure the funding to fully commission the Lavna port and the railway line leading to it, there will be nothing to load,” the portal says, because “the primary flow of coal to the facility originates in the Kuzbass region, where production has been in steady decline in recent years.”