Transcaucasian Highway is under control of nature and customs

The Transcaucasian Highway has been closed for a week (7-14 of March) due to heavy snow. Traffic between South and North Ossetia has been stopped. There have been threats of avalanches. On March 7 a bulldozer driver, Yuri Shkalenko, died because of a landslide near the Chertov bridge on the South Ossetian part of road. People have died at this section of the road almost every winter.

The highway’s closing coincided with a deficit of food products in South Ossetia. It was easy to say that the reason for that was the blocking of the road. However, there was another reason.

Before the heavy snow, vehicles of South Ossetian businessmen crowded at the state border near the village of Nizhny Zaramag. Customs workers didn’t impede the import of goods into South Ossetia. They just asked to carry out a customs clearing in due form. This means that the businessmen had to do it against their own interest. The clearing of a van by customs costs 40,000 rubles on average.

The purchasing power of a citizen of South Ossetia is low. The average salary is 6,000 rubles. Many people are unemployed. It is hard to ask the customs authorities to understand the problems of Ossetian businessmen. No agreement on benefits for them is to be signed in the nearest future. The solution to the problem is establishing major wholesale and retail stocks. However, that may lead to the destruction of small businesses.

Oleg Kushaty. Exclusively to VK