Now you can't swim away! The port of Vyborg closed the "window to Europe" for private boats and yachts

Irina Mishina

Since 2015, Andrey Antonov's family has regularly traveled on a small motor-sailing yacht "Kiwi" from St. Petersburg to Estonia and Finland. We took part in sports competitions, in sailing regattas, we just went for a walk around Helsinki with children... Outside of Russia, there were no problems with port calls. But through the seaport in Vyborg, trips for individuals on small boats have recently stopped. After this port was leased by LLC Port Logistic, the “western gates” of Russia were closed in both directions. Neither citizens of the EU countries, nor Russians on small yachts and motorboats can now travel freely.

From the statement of the yachtsman Andrey Antonov to the North-West Transport Prosecutor's Office.

“I, Andrey Borisovich Antonov, a citizen of Russia, living in St. Petersburg, using a vehicle - a small boat for movement, declare a violation of my rights as a citizen of Russia by the management of Port Logistic LLC, a company that is the only operator of the seaport of Vyborg. Namely, in terms of the prohibition for all Russian citizens to cross the state border on small boats at the international sea checkpoint in the port of Vyborg from 2018 to the present day. LLC "Port Logistic" leased the seaport of Vyborg from Rosmorport and, it seems, the state border of Russia in addition, forbidding Russian citizens traveling on small vessels to cross the border at the international sea checkpoint in the port of Vyborg. I ask the Prosecutor's Office to check the activities of the management of Port Logistic LLC in the port of Vyborg".

As we learned, the North-West Transport Prosecutor's Office promised to investigate this allegation. But nothing is known about its results yet.

Information. The seaport in Vyborg is one of the largest waterways in the country. LLC "Port Logistic" has recently been a leaseholder of the port and provides transshipment services for a wide variety of cargo. During summer navigation, the port accepts passenger ships. The total area of the port is 16.2 hectares, including 47,700 square meters of open storage space and 3,779 square meters of covered storage space. m. Berths No. 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 in the port of Vyborg are leased by Port Logistic LLC. Berths Nos. 2, 3, 4 and 5 are on the balance sheet under the authority of FSUE "Rosmorport". The Vyborg seaport has a permanent multilateral checkpoint across the State border of the Russian Federation.

Small vessels from Sweden, Estonia and Finland pass to Russia through the seaport in Vyborg. Water tourism is very common in the Baltic States and Scandinavia, a small boat among the inhabitants of the Baltic countries is the same usual mode of transport as in big cities - a car. For some, this is not only a way to travel, but also an opportunity to earn money. Fishing in the Baltic Sea is the most common activity.

The port administration motivated the prohibition of passage for small vessels by the fact that the infrastructure of the port and its berths does not correspond to the passage of small vessels.

From messages on the forum "Boats and Yachts":

Elevator: “Small vessels were registered in the port of Vyborg from 2003 to 2018, and there has never been a tragedy, but an accident. If according to this logic, then you cannot walk on the ground, suddenly you fall, you break your leg. Who was in Helsinki, remember, huge ferries, passenger ships, excursions, fishermen, and at the same time thousands of yachts and boats - and nothing, do not collide or sink... All references to "safety" are just an excuse not to do anything. In our country, there is nowhere harder in the country”.

The editorial staff of NI applied to Port Logistics LLC with a request to explain the reasons why small boats were no longer allowed to enter the port of Vyborg. We quote without abbreviations the answer provided by our editorial office:

“LLC“ Port Logistic ”as the operator of the seaport of Vyborg is not able to accept small boats, in accordance with the requirements of transport safety, namely, the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of November 15, 2014 N 1208. According to this regulatory act, individuals are prohibited from using small self-propelled vessels near berths of the seaport of Vyborg. There is a clear division between the operation of a sea checkpoint and transport security requirements. It is the legislation on transport security that does not allow using the infrastructure of seaports to receive small vessels. Berths No. 1 and No. 2 are leased from LLC Port Logistic, and we plan to use them for embarking and disembarking passengers, not from small, but from passenger cruise ships, which corresponds to the intended purpose of these hydraulic structures. Until July 2018, entry through the state border of the Russian Federation in the Seaport of Vyborg was carried out at berth No. 2 using a floating pontoon. At the same time, a floating pontoon is not a sufficient infrastructure, including from a security point of view, for the implementation of border, customs and other types of control of small vessels. Due to the withdrawal from service and the impossibility of further use, the pontoon was dismantled. For additional comments on the previously used registration method, please contact FSUE “Rosmorport”. In the water area of the seaport of Vyborg, it is allowed to park small service vessels that do not belong to individuals. Subparagraph “i” of clause 3 of the normative act (RF PP 1208) prohibits the use of small self-propelled and non-self-propelled vessels in the water areas of seaports used for embarking (disembarking) passengers and transshipment of high-risk goods. Berths that are used for cargo are not structurally designed to receive small vessels. A regulation is a law that we have no right to violate".

However, if you carefully read the document referred to by the representatives of the port - Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of November 15, 2014 N 1208 "On approval of requirements for compliance with transport safety for individuals following or located at transport infrastructure facilities or vehicles", you can do conclude that it is not about banning for individuals on small vessels are in port, carrying passengers and cargo, and on sites that are in the port used for the embarkation or disembarkation of passengers, or handling high-risk cargo. This is what exactly is said in paragraph "i" of the paragraph 3 of this Resolution. In other words, it is enough to make competent markings and allocate berths for small vessels so that individuals can also pass through the port.

It is known that there are only 13 berths in the seaport in Vyborg. Are there really no people free of passenger and freight traffic among them during the day?

"There are always free berths. But the problem is that small boats are in the port free of charge, while passengers who check in at the port, as far as I know, pay a certain amount at check-in. It is obvious that the Vyborg seaport intends to develop the passenger route, because, apparently, it is beneficial. It is assumed that the berths will be occupied by passenger ships with tourists, which will bring profit to private capital. It seems that the Ministry of Transport, Rosmorport support private capital to maximize profits in the seaport of Vyborg, and Russian citizens on small boats turned out to be second-class people, because they do not make a profit, since crossing the state border is free for them", - said yachtsman Andrey Antonov to Novye Izvestia.

At the disposal of our editorial office there is also a response from the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation, which says: “Small boats can follow specially equipped places to go through the procedure for crossing the state border of the Russian Federation through the water area of the seaport, with the exception of the water areas of seaports used for embarkation (disembarkation) passengers or transshipment of hazardous goods. The issue of state control of small vessels primarily depends on the creation of a separate section (terminal) and the corresponding port infrastructure in the seaport of Vyborg".

It turns out that the passage of small vessels, yachts and boats in the seaport of Vyborg is still possible. It is only necessary to create an appropriate site for this. But nobody wants to invest in it. And for this reason, the Leningrad Region does not have a single checkpoint for small vessels in the Gulf of Finland. But in order to create conditions for small vessels in the port of Vyborg, very little is needed - to divide and mark the berths and create conditions for yachtsmen and tourists. But the port is leased from private individuals, who, apparently, are not profitable.

“No one except the Ministry of Transport and the state is capable of developing water tourism and will not do it for their own money. At the same time, Russia is slipping lower and lower in comparison with neighboring countries, such as Finland and Sweden, where excellent conditions for yachtsmen have long been created. Only the Ministry of Transport, on the basis of the Law on Seaports, can oblige Port Logistic LLC, the Vyborg seaport to create the necessary infrastructure for citizens traveling on small vessels to cross the border at a sea checkpoint. And this does not contradict any law or regulation, but on the contrary, the Law on Seaports requires it to be done. Only the unwillingness of the Ministry of Transport does not allow us to resolve this simple issue, ”says yachtsman Andrey Antonov.

After all, no one has yet canceled Article 27 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which states:

"Everyone who is legally on the territory of the Russian Federation has the right to move freely, choose a place of stay and residence. Everyone can freely travel outside the Russian Federation. A citizen of the Russian Federation has the right to freely return to the Russian Federation".

In addition, the closure of the checkpoint in the seaport of Vyborg runs counter to the statements of the officials of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region about the development of yacht and water tourism, that it is necessary by all means to attract foreign yachtsmen to our harbors, and the number of yachts entering our ports to increase at least to the level of Helsinki. But the reality today is that no more than 100 foreign yachts visit St. Petersburg over the summer, and more than 19 thousand visit Helsinki.

Historically, people move around the planet Earth, this is the right of every free person. And the more civilized and free the state, the more conditions have been created in it for convenient and unhindered border crossing. Tsar Peter the Great, who had so much difficulty cutting through the "window to Europe", would hardly have approved the gloomy Burcheyev's ban of the current owners of ports and borders.