Despite a slight 0.5 percent decline in cargo throughput of Russian ports in the first half of this year (-0.5%), handling of outbound cargoes rose 1 percent to 243 410 000 tons. At the same time, foreign ports boosted cargo traffic by 7.5 percent from a year earlier, to 54.21 million tons. Analysts say major exports flow from Russian ports will hardly be down even if a new economic crisis comes, yet are not certain about the ability of Russian ports to increase its share in handling of the cargo.