MOSCOW, July 1 — Russia has temporarily halted rail traffic through seven border checkpoints on its frontiers with Finland, Estonia and Latvia, according to a government order signed on June 30 by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and published the same evening on the official state legal-information portal.
Under the order, movement of passengers, vehicles, merchandise and cargo through the listed rail checkpoints is suspended as of July 1, 2026. The government did not give a reason for the measure, and the order does not specify how long it will remain in force. The Russian Foreign Ministry was instructed to notify the governments of Finland, Estonia and Latvia of the decision.
The affected list, as circulated by Russian state and independent media, covers five checkpoints on the Russian-Finnish frontier and one apiece on the borders with Estonia and Latvia. On the Finnish direction, traffic has stopped at St. Petersburg-Finlyandsky, at Vyborg and Svetogorsk in Leningrad Region, and at Vyartsilya and Lyuttya in the Republic of Karelia. On the Estonian border, the Pechory-Pskovskiye checkpoint in Pskov Region has been shut, while on the Latvian border the closure applies to Pytalovo, also in Pskov Region.
The three neighbours had already tightened their own crossings with Russia well before Moscow’s move. Finland shut every road checkpoint on its 1,340-kilometre land border with Russia on December 15, 2023, citing what its authorities describe as “instrumentalised migration” — a pattern in which, according to the Finnish Border Guard and Interior Ministry, third-country nationals were funnelled to the frontier from the Russian side. On June 4, 2026, Helsinki said the closure would remain in force until further notice. Moscow has denied playing any role in facilitating the crossings.
Estonia introduced full customs inspection of every person and vehicle at its Narva, Koidula and Luhamaa border points on August 8, 2024, a step the Estonian Tax and Customs Board said was aimed at stopping the flow of sanctioned goods into Russia. The vehicle lane at Narva has been closed for reconstruction on the Russian side of the bridge since early 2024, leaving pedestrian traffic as the only option there. In February 2026 Tallinn cut daytime-only opening hours at Koidula and Luhamaa for a three-month period.
Rail freight along the same corridors has also become more expensive in recent weeks. Multiple accounts in Chinese and Russian-language media reported that Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service doubled rail cargo tariffs to destinations in Latvia, Estonia and Finland with effect from early June 2026, although no Russian government press release confirming the size or scope of that adjustment could be independently located for this report.
Finland joined NATO in April 2023, ending decades of formal non-alignment. Estonia and Latvia have been members of the alliance since 2004. Rail traffic to all three neighbours had already contracted sharply since 2022, and passenger services between St. Petersburg and Helsinki were suspended more than four years ago; Tuesday’s order formalises the shutdown of what remained of the last operational rail corridors on Russia’s north-western border.
Neither the Finnish nor the Estonian and Latvian governments had issued a formal response to the Russian order at the time of publication.
