Tourists deny customs officials' statement about reduction of queues at Verkhny Lars

On August 16, the average waiting time at the border between Russia and Georgia reduced down to 2-3 hours, the Federal Customs Service of Russia reported. According to tourists, they actually spent in queues about seven hours.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that starting from August 8, the Ministry for Emergencies (MfE) reported on long queues at the border between Russia and Georgia. On August 14, the MfE reported that the waiting time on the Russian-Georgian border was ten hours, while motorists said that they had to wait for 13 hours in queues. On August 15, the MfE and tourists estimated that in average, people spent in the lines six hours.

On August 16, the Federal Customs Service of Russia announced that compared to August 15, the waiting time at the "Verkhny Lars" border checkpoint reduced by two times, and people spent in lines 2-3 hours.

The information about the reduction of the queues at the border checkpoint was refuted by tourists. According to them, on August 16, people spent in the lines at the border about seven hours or more.

"It took me seven hours to cross the Russian-Georgian border," Sakhil Gadirov wrote in the group "Situation at the 'Verkhny Lars' checkpoint" in the social network "VKontakte" in the evening on August 16.

Kirill Greenfeld wrote that he also spent almost seven hours waiting in the line from Georgia to Russia. "We arrived at the Russian-Georgian border at 12:00 a.m., and we spent 6 hours 49 minutes in the line at the border," the man wrote.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on August 17, 2018 at 02:30 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.