OREANDA-NEWS. September 16, 2011. On September 13 Sergey Shokhin, Deputy Head the Federal Customs Service of Russia, arrived in Karelia. In the Government of the republic he has met Yuri Kancher, First Deputy Head of the Republic of Karelia. In the course of the meeting the parties have discussed questions of the day concerning frontier infrastructure development.

According to Sergey Shokhin, Karelian customs office is of high standing. If in other regions matters concern closing of some check points, then the customs infrastructure in Karelia will grow stronger.

"First of all, it is related to forestry and trade with Finland, our major strategic partner. To a considerable degree we will adapt the customs infrastructure for new developments. In particular, quite recently Head the Federal Customs Service of Russia Andrey Belyaninov has signed the order to vest a number of check points the power on timber export. Such functions were also granted to Petrozavodsk customs," as quoted from Sergey Shokhin.

Construction and reconstruction of the major and most important check points are provided within the scope of the State Boundary federal target program for the period of 2012-2017. There's also no Syvaoro automobile check point of Lahdenpohja region on this list. It will be reconstructed and will swap its current status for multilateral.

"It will be a full-fledged international automobile check point on the Russian-Finnish border that will allow to relieve other check points, " – Sergey Shokhin has emphasized.

It is supposed to build a road on this site of the border. Within the framework of the Euroregion Karelia – EU Commission a decision was made to assign about €6 million for the road construction. The Finnish party is also interested in the project and promised to take part in its implementation.

At the meeting in the Government of the republic matters also concerned modernization of Petrozavodsk airport and opening of a modern customs post there.

Deputy Head the Federal Customs Service of Russia Sergey Shokhin will stay in Karelia for a few days to take part in the All-Russian workshop meeting concerning protection of intellectual property rights by the customs service of Russia.