Since the adoption of the ban for Russian and Belarusian freight transports to cross European Union’s borders, there have been less and less trucks from these countries trying enter Latvia, said State Revenue Service (VID) deputy director general for customs affairs, Customs Office director Raimonds Zukuls in an interview to Latvijas Radio on Tuesday, 12 April.
He said on the day sanctions were imposed, Latvian Customs Office officials denied entry to Latvia to 152 trucks bearing Russian and Belarusian registration numbers. The day after the number of these trucks dropped to a couple of dozen. On 11 April only three Russian and Belarusian trucks tried crossing the Latvian-Russian and Latvian-Belarusian border. Zukuls also said there have been cases when transports from Latvia carried goods forbidden to be exported or imported to the country.
«We turn down those wanting to enter Latvia and those wanting to leave. We’ve had several dozen such cases,» he said, adding that in the first week after sanctions were adopted the number of such cases was about 30.
As previously reported, in response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on 9 April the European Union adopted sanctions and prohibited Russian and Belarusian freight carriers from crossing the EU border. Ships sailing under the flag of the Russian Federation are also prohibited from entering European sea ports.
On top of that, sanctions also restrict imports of goods from Russia, such as coal and other solid fuels.
Official: there are fewer Russian and Belarusian trucks trying to enter Latvia
