Anti-Russian Sanctions Go Off the Rails as Latvia Seeks Exemption to Make Its Soviet-Era Trains Run

The EU’s decision to shoot its economy in both feet by introducing its “toughest ever” sanctions against Russia has brought the bloc’s economic growth to a standstill, with manufacturers leaving Europe in droves for better conditions (and lower energy bills) abroad. But the restrictions have other, less well reported on knock-on effects, too.

Latvian state railway carrier Pasažieru vilciens (PV) has urged the country’s parliament to walk back a planned ban on the purchase of Russian and Belarusian-made spare parts for rolling stock, warning that otherwise, its stock of Soviet-made trains could quickly come to a standstill and paralyze the entire railway network.

“Unless a reasonable exemption is made, PV will only be able to run the rolling stock it owns and operates for so long as it has a surplus of spare parts, which in some cases will be in use as early as this spring,” the company said in an appeal to lawmakers shared by local media.

“Consequently, PV will be forced to reduce the number of rolling stock used in providing services, reaching a situation in which there will not be enough rolling stock available to ensure safe and continuous public transport services,” the company warned.

A specially created parliamentary commission is presently considering amendments to its procurement legislation, including tough new requirements for companies to exclude Russian and Belarusian-produced goods from consideration in major purchases.

Russia and Belarus are the only countries which make many parts for Latvia’s Soviet-made trains, with PV saying replacing the parts with European analogues is problematic at best and impossible at worst, since they don’t meet technical specifications.

“Pasažieru vilciens calls on the draft law to be amended to exclude goods and services of Russian and Belarusian origin in such a way as to be able to purchase part for old electric and diesel trains designed and built in the Soviet period,” PV urged.

Despite their ‘European aspirations’ and membership in the EU since 2004, Latvia and other Baltic countries have had difficulties disconnecting from economic linkages with Russia and other post-Soviet countries established during the Soviet era, with their railway networks developed almost exclusively during the Soviet period.

After Brussels unveiled its sanctions “total war” against Russia in the spring of 2022, the Baltics have suffered among the most severe recessions in the bloc, facing surging inflation, rising interest rates, and weakening demand for goods and services. In February, Russian Charge d’Affaires to Latvia Oleg Zykov told Sputnik that bilateral trade between the two countries had fallen by 68 percent in 2023 compared to a year prior.

PV is not alone in its concerns about restrictions on trade with Russia. Last month, Latvia’s Ministry of Health expressed opposition to government plans to ban medicines produced in Russia and Belarus, warning that there are “no substitutes” available for a number of preparations, and that about 10 percent of drugs required by patients come from the two countries.

PV is Latvia’s sole passenger railway company, carrying up to 18.6 million passengers annually along ten routes.

The majority of its rolling stock was built by Rīgas Vagonbūves Rūpnīca (RVR), a legendary rail and tram vehicle manufacturer that was known across the USSR. After RVR went out of business in 2017, PV was left dependent on Russian and Belarusian producers which still make parts for these trains. Latvia began to buy trains from Czechia’s Skoda Vagonka in 2019 after a messy procurement debate in which RVR was not even considered. The Riga-based company built its last trains for Belarusian Railways in 2008, and spent its last several years languishing without orders before going bust.

The ER200 - the Soviet Union's first high-speed electric train, produced by the Riga-based Rīgas Vagonbūves Rūpnīca (RVR) train and tram manufacturer, arrives at Leningrad Station in Moscow. File photo. In the Soviet period, Latvia and other Baltic republics were known for the production of an array of high-tech manufactured goods, from trains and light vehicles to radio-electronics on par in quality terms with many Western and Japanese goods.

© Sputnik / Sergey Guneev

“The Latvian carrier’s train fleet is quite worn out, more than half of it consisting of rolling stock that’s over 50 years old, with most of the trains modernized at Russian or Latvian plants,” Rollingstock Agency managing partner Alexander Polikarpov told Sputnik, commenting on the PV story.

“Without the supply of spare parts, the carrier will be forced to put trains out of service and will most likely begin to cannibalize them,” the analyst said.

Polikarpov estimates that over 70 percent of PV’s rolling stock consists of variants of the ER2 and DR2 electric and diesel trains, while the new trains purchased from Skoda have shown “a significant number of defects” which have yet to be ironed out.

Russian enterprises have the technical capacity to continue providing Latvia with spares for its trains. “However the decision on the supply of components to EU countries is made on a political level, not at the production level,” the observer said.