Russia introduces a double tariff on railway freight transport to Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. Such an order from the Federal Antimonopoly Service has already been published on the official portal of the agency.
For several years now, Latvia's railway has been struggling to survive after losing a significant amount of cargo from Russia and Belarus due to international sanctions. Revenues are falling, there is no money, and the volume of railway freight transport is decreasing every month, demonstrating a continuous decline, writes Grani.lv.
This year is no exception. According to the Ministry of Transport, in the first four months of this year, the volume of freight transport decreased by another 17.9% compared to the same period in 2025, amounting to a meager 2.469 million tons. The volume of domestic transport decreased by 7.3%. International transport decreased by 20.3%. Domestic transport decreased by 7.3%. And transit cargo decreased by 14.7% in the first four months of this year.
In general, the plunge into the abyss continues. But now it will gain additional momentum, thanks to Russia.
As reported by all Russian news agencies, starting June 1, Russia will sharply raise tariffs on freight railway transport to unfriendly countries – Latvia, Estonia, and Finland. The corresponding order from the Federal Antimonopoly Service No. 306/26 was published on Monday on the official legal acts placement portal.
According to this document, an additional coefficient of 2 will be applied to the tariffs for transporting cargo through land border crossings with the aforementioned countries. A similar measure will affect transport through Belarus in the case of further shipment of cargo to Latvia and Estonia.
An exception will be made only for transport directed to the stations of the Kaliningrad Railway and Lithuania.
The increasing coefficient applies to all types of cargo. For trains not owned by Russian Railways, it will be applied to each wagon, as well as to locomotives – diesel or electric. Additionally, the coefficient will affect tariffs for using the infrastructure of Russian Railways and for promoting freight trains.
This is called – goodbye, long-awaited transit from China and Kazakhstan. We were promised so much that it would save us, but – no. These countries are unlikely to send their cargo through Latvia now. Russia's decision will have a very negative impact on the railway transit of the Baltic states (at least for now – excluding Lithuania) and will deal a significant blow to transportation and logistics costs.
So it seems that our railway, which lacks funds even to maintain its infrastructure in working condition, will soon have to be dismantled for rails...
