Customs turns back 60 Russian, Belarusian vehicles at borders

So far Finnish Customs has turned back 60 vehicles at Russian borders since 9 April following the sanctions imposed by the European Union on the Russian and Belarusian vehicles, said Customs in a press release on Wednesday.

The new sanctions ended all road traffic carrying commercial goods as concerns vehicles registered in Russia or Belarus.

Meanwhile, the new sanctions slowed down the border traffic between Finland and Russia. Overall, the traffic has decreased by about 90 per cent compared to last year.

The European Union has imposed extensive sanctions against Russia and Belarus due to Russia´s attack on Ukraine.

As the implementing authority, Finnish Customs’ tasks include enforcing the sanctions on goods traffic agreed at EU level.

Based on the new sanctions, all vehicles registered in Russia or Belarus are turned back to Russia.

“EU’s sanctions previously imposed against Russia had already reduced the border traffic, and since the entry into force of these new sanctions, traffic has slowed further. Overall, the traffic has decreased by nearly 90 per cent compared to last year. The information regarding the sanctions reached the operators quite quickly and we turned back 60 vehicles, most of them the day after the sanctions came into force. The traffic is likely to remain quiet but in the future, some of the transports may potentially be covered by exemptions,” said Sami Rakshit, Director of the Enforcement Department.

Earlier commercial road traffic from Russia ended on 9 April following the new sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia and Belarus.