Armenia customs attaché to Russia: Upper Lars border checkpoint reopened after being closed for about 5 hours

The Upper Lars checkpoint—on the Georgian-Russian border—has been reopened, and standing Armenian cars continue their journey to Russia and in the opposite direction. Vahan Hakobyan, customs attaché of the Armenian embassy in Russia, said this in an interview with Armenpress.

"It is already passable, the checkpoint is open, cars have started to pass," said Hakobyan.

The checkpoint was closed for about five hours, as an avalanche started at 10am, and the checkpoint was reopened at around 3pm.

According to the customs attaché, there were no accumulations of Armenian cars during that time. At some point, the cars just stopped, and they continued on their way after the road was reopened.

"About 300 cars are on the way from Armenia to Russia, some of them are on the road, some of them are already going through customs formalities. And about 300 [other] cars are coming from Russia to Armenia, some of them are on the road, some of them are going through [customs] formalities," Hakobyan elaborated, stressing that this is the average daily flow, and there is no accumulation. He added that the increased flow of vehicles during the time when the aforesaid checkpoint was closed will reduce in one hour.

During this period, there were no major problems in connection with Armenian cars. According to the customs attaché, everyone was informed that there is a problem on the road, some of them waited on the road, and some waited elsewhere until the road was reopened. Now the traffic has returned to its normal course, the process of customs formalities at the checkpoint is also proceeding as normal.

Earlier, the North Ossetia General Department of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia had reported that the traffic of all types of vehicles on the Upper Lars motorway was prohibited due to an avalanche in the territory of Georgia.