ITAR-TASS , Russia
Feb 28 2010

Kazbegi ` Verkhny Lars checkpoint to reopen on March 1

28.02.2010, 18.56

VLADIKAVKAZ, February 28 (Itar-Tass) — The Kazbegi ` Verkhny Lars
checkpoint on the Georgian-Russian border will reopen on March 1,
North Ossetian border department spokesman Alexander Solod told
Itar-Tass on Sunday.

Russia closed down the Verkhny Lars checkpoint for reconstruction on
July 8, 2006. Tbilisi described the action as `unexpected and
political’. The repairs ended on May 5, 2009, and the Kazbegi post
modernized with U.S. funding reopened in September 2009.

This is the only checkpoint on the Russian-Georgian border. Armenia is
very much interested in the reopening of the checkpoint, which is the
only way from Armenia to Russia. About a third of Armenian foreign
trade was conducted by the Voyenno-Gruzinskaya road in the past.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier he hoped for the
reopening of the border checkpoint on March 1. `Russia is ready to
meet its commitments,’ the minister said.

`The traffic through the Kazbegi ` Verkhny Lars checkpoint will resume
on March 1, in keeping with the agreements reached by Georgian and
Russian experts in Yerevan on October 28, 2009 with the Armenian
mediation and in Kazbegi on December 23, 2009, in the attendance of
Swiss representatives,’ the Georgian Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

`People, vehicles, cargo and cattle will cross the Kazbegi checkpoint
in line with Georgian laws and the Verkhny Lars checkpoint in line
with Russian laws. The checkpoint will be open daily from 6:00 a.m.
through 10:00 p.m. on March 1 ` November 1 and from 7:00 a.m. through
7:00 p.m. from November 1 to March 1,’ the ministry said.

Weather permitting, the checkpoint will be open for trucks and
passenger vehicles with more than 30 seats. `It will not be allowed to
cross the checkpoint by foot. If either side denies entry to a
vehicle, the other side will freely let it in,’ the ministry said.

The Kazbegi checkpoint will not issue Georgian entry visas. According
to Georgian laws, entry visas can be issued either at Georgian
embassies (including the Georgian desk at the Swiss embassy in Moscow)
or at Georgian airports and seaports.

Georgian citizens may receive Russian entry visas at the Russian desk
of the Swiss embassy in Tbilisi.
From: Baghdasarian