Euros and luxury goods are most often confiscated at Estonia’s border with russia

Since the start of russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, around 60% of goods have been restricted.

Since last August, full customs control has been introduced at all Estonian eastern border crossing points. Everyone crossing the border is required to show the contents of their bag to prevent prohibited goods from crossing the border.

“There is demand, there is money in russia and everything possible is still being done to transport exclusive goods there,” said Voldemar Linno, Head of the Customs Control Department at the Tax and Customs Administration.

One of the groups of items regularly found by officers are car parts. From luxury tyres to ordinary motor oil SW30, which are banned from crossing the border.

"However, 96% of all violations involve smuggling of euros. Luxury goods such as wines or branded products worth more than 300 euros are also regularly confiscated."

The PPA found that people find creative ways to evade sanctions. Linno said that one traveller had glued a single Prada sandal which pair is worth more than 900 euro to her body (the other sandal was never found), while another had hidden 6 000 euro in her underwear.

Marta Tuul of the Internal Security Service (ISS) said that these attempts show that there is a demand in russian society for sanctioned goods, adding that “a wider change in russian society will only come when life becomes difficult, which is why sanctions are important”.

If the goods are not dual use, i.e. goods that can be used for war, travellers are given the option of either going back or leaving the banned goods at the border and continuing their journey, but only if it is a first offence and committed through ignorance.

Otherwise, the ISS prosecutes intentional and repeated violations of sanctions. “Last year 71 cases were opened and this year 12,” said Marta Tuul, adding that they are mostly concerned about goods “used by russia for military activities – all technologies whose main purpose is to kill people and promote violence.”

The introduction of full customs controls has already yielded results. The average number of violations per day has fallen from 22 to 12.

Statistics Estonia has noted that trade between Estonia and russia has fallen sharply since the start of the war and sanctions. In 2021, Estonia exported almost 770 million euros worth of goods to russia, but by the end of last year this had halved. Imports from russia have also fallen significantly – from over two billion euros a year to now only around 100 million euros.

Source: BNN