Ministry of Agriculture: Armenian companies do not suffer losses because of closure of "Verkhny Lars"

On the Georgian Military Highway, a many-kilometre jam from the Russian side does not become smaller. A week after the opening of the border, about two hundred trucks still stay there. Passenger cars and buses formed a jam of the same length.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on June 23, the Georgian Military Road was closed after a landslide which occurred on the Georgian section of the Road.

The jam starts near the village of Nizhny Lars of North Ossetia and lasts approximately four kilometres to the Russian customs office.

The checkpoint "Verkhny Lars" on the Russian-Georgian border is open on a temporary basis from 4:30 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

No Armenian carriers suffered losses because of the closure of the Georgian Military Road in the section of Stepantsminda-Lars. This was reported by the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture. The carriers who were unable to transport their products to the Moscow market, sold the goods at the Georgian market, reports the press service the Armenian Ministry of Agriculture.

The volume of agricultural exports has declined, since trucks had to go back and re-export the goods. This was stated by Gagik Makaryan, the chair of the Armenian Union of Employers.

The opening of alternative roads, in particular, the Ossetian Military Road through the checkpoint "Nizhny Zaramakh" is beneficial not only to Armenia, as Georgia tries to show. Meanwhile, the excitement in Georgia in connection with the possible transit of goods through South Ossetia has been connected with the forthcoming parliamentary elections, reports Johnny Melikyan, the leader of the Centre for Political and Legal Studies of Armenia.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.