Russia abruptly suspends all railway border crossings with Finland, Estonia and Latvia

Sudden closure announced

On June 30, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a government decree ordering the temporary suspension of movement through selected railway border crossings with Finland, Estonia, and Latvia, effective from July 1. The order was published on the government's legal portal late Tuesday and will apply to persons, vehicles, goods, and cargo.

“Temporarily suspend, from 1 July 2026, the movement of persons, vehicles, goods and cargo through railway border checkpoints on the state border of the Russian Federation on certain sections of the state border.”

The document contains no explanation for the measure and does not specify how long the restrictions will last. The Russian Foreign Ministry has been instructed to formally notify the governments of Finland, Estonia, and Latvia.

Which crossings are affected

Seven railway checkpoints are included in the annex. Five are on the border with Finland: Vyborg, Svetogorsk, and St. Petersburg-Finlandsky in the Leningrad region, plus Vyartsilya and Lyutta in the Republic of Karelia. The remaining two are in the Pskov region: Pechory-Pskovskiye on the Estonian border and Pitalovo on the Latvian border.

Several of these points were already non-operational. Finnish authorities had earlier closed their own railway border crossings with Russia, leaving only the Estonian and Latvian routes functioning. The new Russian decree therefore effectively shuts down all remaining railway passenger and freight links with these three European Union and NATO member states.

Context of rising tensions

The closure follows weeks of growing friction at the border. According to work by RBK radio, the decision came after a significant increase in traffic in recent days. At the Estonian crossing in Narva-Jõesuu, multi-kilometer queues built up on Tuesday, with waiting times stretching to more than ten hours.

Estonian Interior Minister Igor Taro had earlier attributed the delays to thorough customs inspections driven by an expanded European sanctions list against Russia. Separately, Estonia's Police and Border Guard Board recently installed stationary drone detection and monitoring equipment along three sections of its southeastern land border with Russia, adding mobile radar systems configured to track low-flying drones.

Official notifications and next steps

The Russian Foreign Ministry has been tasked with communicating the closures to Helsinki, Tallinn, and Riga. No official comment has been released by any of the three countries as of early Wednesday. The suspension applies exclusively to railway traffic; road crossings remain unaffected for now.