Next time you're stuck in a traffic jam, spare a thought for Jevgenijs. While it might take you 20 minutes to get to the front of the queue - or an hour if you're really unlucky - it will take Jevgenijs 96 hours to get to the front of his. If he's unlucky, it will take nine days.
Jevgenijs and 1,500 other truckers form a line that snakes for up to 30 miles through the rural landscape of Ludza district in south-eastern Latvia, leading to the Russian border crossing point at Terehova. The queue appeared almost overnight 18 months ago, like the mushrooms that the locals avidly seek among the fields of this quiet corner of Europe.
And it's the fact that this is a corner of Europe that is the problem. Terehova is the shortest route to Moscow from a large part of central and eastern Europe. Crossing points from the EU to Russia are few and hauliers can only use those with inspection facilities. Trucks from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, parts of Belarus and western Europe all get funnelled to Terehova. On a good day, there are 1,000 trucks waiting; on a bad day there can be 2,000.
It's easy to tell how far the queue can reach. As soon as I've passed through the small town of Ludza, I notice portable toilets by the roadside. At first I think the local council must have the owner of a portable toilet manufacturer as mayor, but then the realisation dawns - this is as far as the queues have reached, a sort of disinfectant-stained high water mark. Each loo has a companion bin and they stand sentinel next to the A12 highway like lazy, smelly models of C-3P0 and R2-D2.
