Officers from the Sebezh customs point in the Pskov region are awaiting confirmation of certain information from the points of destination of Lithuanian trucks transporting goods to Russia to begin their customs clearance, a spokesperson from the Burachki customs checkpoint told Interfax on Thursday.

"The lines at the border are because of new instructions. The situation at the checkpoint should normalize starting Monday," she said.

It was reported earlier that 840 trucks and 90 cars were lined up to enter Russia at the Terekhovo-Burachki checkpoint and 240 trucks and 90 cars at the Grebnevo-Ubylinka checkpoint as of 7:00 a.m. Thursday, which happened for the first time this year.

There had been no long lines of trucks at the Latvian-Russian border over the previous several months, but Russian border guards introduced stricter measures in checking Lithuanian trucks in early August, which reduced the checkpoints' throughput capacity and increased the lines of vehicles.

The Russian customs authorities said in a letter to the Lithuanian Customs Department that the reason for stricter inspection measures applied to Lithuanian trucks was that 16 violations on their part, i.e. incomplete customs clearance of their goods, had been uncovered in 2009.

It was reported earlier that lines of Lithuanian trucks at the Belarusian-Russian checkpoints had also been growing over the previous three days.

News source: www.interfax.com RZD-PARTNER