Norway, Russia border-traffic up 16%, despite freezing cold January
21,880 border crossings were counted in January.
That is up 16 percent compared with January 2019, the police in charge of immigration control at Norway’s border check-point informs.
January is normally a month with higher traffic than other months because of Russia’s Christmas holiday comes at the same time as shops in the border-town of Kirkenes starts their New Year sales.
The drive between Murmansk and Kirkenes takes some three-four hours. This January, though, has experienced tough weather, with snow-storms and extreme cold.
The last few days of January had multiple days with temperatures dropping below -30 °C.
The notable increase in border traffic follows a 2019 which became the first year since 2014 with a year-on-year increase in traffic across the northernmost Russia-Europe land border.
As previously reported by the Barents Observer, the increase was 4% in 2019 compared with 2018.
