Lasting for over a week now, the freeze has immobilized the gulfs of Riga and Finland.

The ships sailing to the Finish, Estonian, Russian and Latvian ports have been taken in ice captivity. The gulfs of Riga and Finland were cased in 40 and in some places 70 cm thick ice.

There was a tragic situation in Riga port last week, where ice thickness reached up to 70 centimeters. The ships froze in even at the quays. The last time Riga port was caught in the similar icy situation was in 2003.

Riga port has only one ice-breaker Varma. Built in 1968, the old icebreaker was working in full capacity. It can only guide two ships, no wider than 29 meters.

Riga port is not considering the purchase of another icebreaker because they are very expensive. The price of a new powerful icebreaker can reach up to 100 million lats.

Riga port entrepreneurs said that their work was almost paralyzed. Port Authority officially reported that during the day the port of Riga would guide and undock from 8 to 10 ships, whereas there would normally be 15.

The situation in the Gulf of Finland is not much better. Although the Finnish and Russian ports have more icebreakers, they are unable to maneuver all the ships to the port. On different days, from 50 to 70 vessels were waiting for the help of icebreakers.

In Russia, to help ships to enter into the port of St. Petersburg two additional icebreakers from Murmansk had been sent in. A total of 14 icebreakers were working in the Russian ports in the Gulf of Finland, including St. Petersburg, Ust-Luga, Primorsk and some smaller ones.