The Belarusian woman was returning from Peru: Lithuanian customs officers arranged a full inspection and performed an endoscopy. What is happening now on the Belarusian-Russian border? We personally checked how much a Belarusian customs officer earns

Belarusian Nika Koshar was returning to Minsk from Peru with a change in Vilnius. Lithuanian customs officers suspected the girl of drug smuggling and staged a search. But they did not confine themselves to a simple examination, but took her to the hospital and forced her to do an endoscopy of the stomach. The girl told the story of such an unpleasant procedure on her page in Facebook.

The girl's path looked like this: from Peru to Amsterdam, from there by plane to Vilnius, and then by train to Minsk. But just before the last jerk, an overlay stood out.

- At the gangway, two in civilian clothes and about five customs officers were waiting for me. They took my passport, looked at each other and said, they say, this is her. They took me aside and said they needed to find out something. They asked about some Raul or Paul if he was flying with me. I don't know anyone like that, so I answered them.

The girl was thoroughly examined, but nothing forbidden was found. True, they did not let go. Instead, they were taken to the clinic. They measured the pressure, X-rayed it, but also did not notice anything illegal. She was advised not to ask too many questions if she wanted to catch her train. The girl was not allowed to drink, was not allowed to go to the toilet.

- I say: doctor, you are a doctor, I want to go to the toilet and drink, I have my period, I feel bad. The doctor looked and said that it was the police who dealt with people like me, not doctors.

After some time, Nika was taken for an endoscopy.

- The next doctor asked: “What are you complaining about?” I replied, “Nothing. But all these people think that I am transporting drugs in myself. ” He asked: "Are you transporting?" I answered no. Then he said: “What if I find it? I was told to look, and I will look.” And so he injected this tube into me. She's about an inch thick. He did everything very rudely and harshly. I vomited, it was hard to breathe. His heart was pounding, his hand cramped.

Nothing was found during this inspection either. According to Nika, the doctor told her that she still had several unpleasant procedures.

Nika says that she was already shaking from hysteria and tears. One of the policemen called the authorities, the girl was taken for an MRI scan, completely scanned again, and only after that they were released with the words: "Sorry for the inconvenience, come visit us again." They did not give the girl any documents, they only gave their names and let her go.

- To be honest, in a stressful situation, I did not realize that I should demand the consul. Lost, frightened- Nika told the Onliner.by correspondent in a comment . - They said not to show off, otherwise they would put me in a "monkey".

Upon returning to Belarus, Nika contacted the Belarusian Foreign Ministry via a hotline, described the situation and said that she would like to get advice. “They didn’t understand why I was contacting them, because the incident took place in Lithuania”. A few minutes later, the girl was called back by a district police officer from the village of Machulishchi. He was rather skeptical, but he came and wrote down her statement. Now Nick is waiting for an answer.

Lithuanian lawyer Vladlen Grigoriev commented on this situation to Kommersant FM. According to him, law enforcement officers have the right to check information about drug smuggling: “It is important on the basis of what they had the right to do this and how much her rights were violated, whether she suffered morally, maybe some kind of physical pain was inflicted on her. In this situation, it would be the best option for her to report the incident to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus and prepare a complaint accordingly, check the actions of officials.”

Added. Lithuanian comment

The Lithuanian side commented on the situation today. Gediminas Kulikauskas, a public relations representative of the criminal service of the Lithuanian customs, confirmed that the Belarusian was indeed checked on suspicion of drug smuggling.

“Responding to information on social networks about the alleged misconduct of customs officers during the examination of a citizen of Belarus, we inform you that on March 15, the specified person was indeed checked at the Vilnius airport on suspicion of drug smuggling. An investigation is currently underway into the circumstances and course of the inspection, as well as whether during the inspection of a person there was a violation of the procedure established in such cases," - conveys to DELFI the words of the Lithuanian official.

Belarusian Foreign Ministry: it is important for us whether the rights of a Belarusian citizen were violated

The situation was commented on by the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. The agency will send an official inquiry regarding the situation with the inspection of a Belarusian citizen at the Lithuanian customs, BelTA reports with reference to Andrey Shuplyak, Deputy Head of the Information and Digital Diplomacy Department of the Foreign Ministry.

“Employees of the main consular department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs proactively contacted the citizen using one of the social networks to clarify the circumstances of the incident. Based on the information received, an official request will be prepared to the Lithuanian side with a request to study the circumstances of the case and inform about the results. It is important for us whether the rights of a Belarusian citizen have not been violated,” he said.

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Customs officers of a neighboring country confiscated the car from Ukrainian tourists returning from the Baltic states, explaining that there was no stamp in their declaration, which the day before ... they themselves “forgot” to put. As it turned out, there are dozens of such cases now.

During the May holidays, the Icelandic volcano raged again, airports were under threat of closure, and many of those who had already decided to spend a couple of days off abroad decided not to risk it and go on a trip by car. So the father and son Stanislav and Ivan Osharov, together with Ivan's girlfriend, went to Riga in their Nissan. They wanted to visit relatives, and at the same time travel around the Baltic states. Who would have thought that the journey would end sadly - the family would be left without a beloved and very expensive car.

“The car will remain at the penalty area, and you must leave the territory of Belarus within three hours”

We left Kiev on May 1, - says Ivan Osharov. - We passed the border calmly, crossed Belarus. We arrived in Latvia, stayed in Riga, visited Estonia and Lithuania, where we admired the castles. We set off on the return trip. We arrived at the Belarusian border - there was a crazy queue at the checkpoint. A hundred or a hundred and fifty cars. What to do? My girlfriend's Schengen visa expires in four hours! We found the nearest checkpoint on the map - Kotlovka - and quickly drove there.

Fortunately, there were much fewer cars there, so the Lithuanian customs went through very quickly. There were several queues at the Belarusian checkpoint. One of the employees waved his hand at us to get us into the "green corridor" (where they usually check the documents of those who have nothing to declare. - Auth.).

We filled out the declaration and started running from window to window - we gave the registration certificate for the car to one, the passports to the other, and the third paid a transport fee of 4 euros for driving on the roads of Belarus. The customs officer asked to open the trunk, made sure that everything was in order, gave us a pile of documents - passports, insurance, a receipt and allowed us to enter.

We spent the night in Minsk, and the next day we arrived in Novaya Guta on the Ukrainian border. And here the most interesting began. We were already marked in our passports about crossing the Belarusian border, when suddenly the customs officer, by the way, the same one who had checked us at the entrance to Belarus a week earlier, noticed that there was no stamp in our declaration. But after all, this piece of paper, along with other documents, was given to us by his colleagues on the Lithuanian-Belarusian border! Why did the customs officers forget to stamp it? And how do we, ordinary tourists, know what should be there? They checked us, let us in, so what - to double-check the documents after the customs officers? Looking ahead, I will say: the Belarusians also did not put a stamp or seal on the act of seizing our car. They gave me a piece of paper with signatures and said that that was enough.

And the Belarusian customs officer was adamant - there is no stamp, which means, in fact, there is no declaration. But there is no declaration, which means that we have violated Belarusian laws and, according to these very laws, our car is subject to detention.

We were shocked! After all, we have all the other documents in perfect order - there is a border crossing stamp in the passports, there is a receipt for the paid transport fee for the transit of this particular vehicle through the territory of Belarus, car insurance (“green card”), and, in the end, video recording from Belarusian border checkpoint! They asked the customs officer: call Kotlovka, let them check the database and confirm that we entered Belarus yesterday. We are not smugglers! We are just tourists, and from a brotherly neighboring country. But the customs officer said that everything is not so simple and our business will be handled by the department, which is located in Gomel. And since it's the holidays, the employees of the department will appear at work only in two days.

We suspected that money was being extorted from us and offered to pay a fine. The customs officer refused - they seem to be strict with this. Then we decided: well, we will wait in the car for the results of the investigation. “No,” they explained to us, “the car will remain at the penalty area, and you must leave the territory of Belarus within three hours.”

The customs officers drew up a seizure act, valuing our car at $12,000. "Why so cheap? - we were surprised. “The car costs twice as much!” - “In Belarus, such prices,” was the answer.

Then they demanded the keys and a registration certificate from us: they say, if you do not give it voluntarily, we will call a patrol that will take them away by force. It was some kind of nightmare! We tried to get through to the Ukrainian consulate, but none of the three phones given to us at customs answered. There was nothing left but to agree with the driver of a passing car, who took us to Kiev.

At home, we still managed to contact the Ukrainian consulate in Belarus. They said that they could help only by giving the phone number of an international lawyer - perhaps he would be able to “recapture” the car. The services of this lawyer turned out to be very expensive, about 100 US dollars per day plus all additional expenses - transport, hotel. But what can you do, the car is more expensive, and it seems that there is no need to wait for help from our state.

An official from the Center for Assistance to Citizens of Ukraine Abroad refused to call our consul in Minsk

This week, my lawyer and I visited both the customs office in Novaya Guta and the customs office in Gomel, Ivan continues. - As it turned out, there are dozens of such cases! Moreover, Belarusians often take away cars from the Balts. “Yesterday I visited the Consul of Estonia on a similar case,” said the Deputy Head of Customs. When I heard this, it was damn insulting: Estonia is a small country, but its consul was not too lazy and came, because we are talking about his compatriots in trouble. Any state protects its citizens, but not Ukraine! Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kiev even has a Center for Assistance to Ukrainian Citizens Abroad. We sent a fax there asking for help in solving our problem. Having contacted the Center by phone, we received the answer: “We will consider your application and respond within a month, as provided by law.” And to my request to contact our consul in Minsk, one of the officials replied that he would not do this, since he had a limit on international negotiations - THREE MINUTES a day!

In Gomel, we were informed that the investigation is still ongoing. When finished, the materials will be sent to court. But, our lawyer (by the way, a Belarusian) explained, there is not much to hope for: in 95 percent of cases, the court leaves the cars detained for violating customs rules to the state. Then the lawyer said that the budget of Belarus included a considerable item of income from confiscation. And state bodies are trying with all their might to fill the treasury.

That this is indeed the case, we quickly became convinced. The request from the office in Gomel, as the lawyer found out, having traveled to the border with Lithuania, for some reason was sent to a completely different checkpoint, not the one through which we passed. What is negligence? Or did someone really like our car and now everything is being done to confuse the tracks, get the right court decision and give the Nissan to the new owner for nothing? If so, then, I'm afraid, the record of us crossing the border by car can simply be erased from the computer. And then we are all criminals!

In addition to the report of the seizure of the car, Ivan Osharov showed another curious document, which, in the form of "friendly help", was handed over to him by Belarusian customs officers. The document contains addresses of local legal advice offices and a small explanation for tourists. It says: “The institute of private lawyers in the Republic of Belarus has been liquidated, so there are only public defenders, but their assistance, as a rule, is ineffective and useless in criminal cases and disputes with state bodies.” What's this? A subtle hint - they say, is it useless to challenge the actions of local officials?

FACTS turned to the General Director of the consulting company Ukrvneshterminalcomplex Oleksandr Leleta for a comment.

This is complete chaos, - said Alexander Dmitrievich. - People have, albeit indirect, but evidence of the import of a vehicle into Belarus - stamps in passports, a receipt for paying a toll. I suppose that the car also had to be entered into the customs electronic database, as is done in Ukraine. By the way, it is difficult to imagine such a situation in our country: every vehicle that enters the territory of Ukraine enters a centralized electronic database.

There are cases when a person enters Ukraine by car, but then has to urgently return abroad, and therefore leaves the car and flies by plane. At the airport, he hands over an immigration card (we recommend making a copy of it just in case), where there is a mark on the import of a car. But this does not mean that the imported car is now illegally in Ukraine. One way or another, even without an immigration card, no one will confiscate a car. Information about it is in the database, and customs officers can easily check it.

In the Republic of Belarus, now you can lose your car and "get" a fine of $ 30 thousand, crossing its border.

This is exactly what happened to me, and I promised that I would do my best to warn as many people as possible.

It all started with the fact that in Belarus the rules for the import and export of cars were very tightened so that local citizens would not drive Lithuanian cars that were not cleared through customs.

In practice, this law works more against citizens of other states, rather than the Belarusians themselves, bringing a lot of income to the state treasury.

The scheme is simple: the date of export of the car is overdue, the transfer of the car to another driver, incorrectly completed documents - for such minor violations, even under extenuating circumstances or if there are documents required in such cases, you will not only be deprived of the vehicle, but a fine of $ 30 will be soldered thousand

As it was in my case. I, at the request of a relative, had to return the Range Rover jeep to Ukraine while the owner was preparing for an operation in a Kiev hospital. I collected all the necessary package of documents, including a power of attorney and certificates from a doctor.

The Ukrainian customs passed without problems, the Russian customs officer looked at all the documents and also missed.

At the Belarusian customs, they asked me to get out of the car, they explained that I had violated the rules for the import and export of goods on the territory of the Customs Union and that the car was subject to confiscation. They promised to help with a hotel or at least put me on a bus, but as soon as I gave the keys to the car, they lost interest in me.

In the middle of the night I was left without a car, almost without money, several hundred kilometers from home in a foreign country, not knowing what to do.

Next is the court. According to the third paragraph of Article 358 of the Customs Code of the Customs Union, the transfer of temporarily imported goods (including cars) is allowed if the owner of the goods has declared its transfer and paid the customs duty. On this side, I'm wrong.

But, if you look from the other side, paragraph 3 of Article 279 of the Customs Code says that in some cases the car can be transferred to third parties without the permission of the customs authority. For example, for repair or transportation. There is also paragraph 2 of Article 11 of the Customs Agreement, which allows the transfer of the vehicle to third parties with the approval of the customs authority. If, for example, the owner of the car became seriously ill or died.

In my case, there were all the certificates that the owner of the car was sick, but, according to the judge, the documents provided were not enough. At the same time, the court never explained to me what kind of "papers" were missing.

So, the result - the confiscation of the car at the cost of a billion Belarusian rubles (approximately $60,000) and a fine of 449 million Belarusian rubles ($30,000) - is thousands of times more than any customs duty that I could not pay.

My story is not the only one. This happens all the time, they write about it on Belarusian websites, on this occasion there are constantly requests for help from the Ukrainian consul, but an ordinary Ukrainian usually finds out about this only at the time of the confiscation of the car itself.

As I understand it, it is not in the interests of Belarusian customs officers to warn about possible consequences. For you to understand, earlier warnings were included in the customs declaration, now they are not there. Moreover, it is not known to whom and where these confiscated cars are sold and the owner has no chance to buy it back.

Just the other day, I learned that it was at the Oshmyany customs, where I was fined $30,000, that a corruption scheme was uncovered, in which about 20 officials were involved, and the total criminal profits amounted to millions of dollars.

I don’t know, maybe someday they will reveal to us the answer to the question of where the confiscated cars go next, but for now, the victims turn to international courts, and high-ranking officials who fiercely defend their anti-corruption image become the new owners of the seized cars.

But, no matter how events unfold in the future, if you are going to cross the Belarusian border in the near future, check out the Customs Code of the Republic of Belarus.

Going shopping to Poland and other EU countries has become a common thing for Belarusians. Despite this, not everyone has yet clearly understood what and how much can be taken from abroad and what threatens for violating the rules. “They took too much, it was clear that they exceeded the import norms in terms of weight, but they entered the“ green ”corridor. Hoped it would pass. As a result, we were fined,” says Evgeniy, a resident of Minsk. the site found out what can be done with an advantage if you bought too much, and what you should not do in the border zone so as not to get a fine.

The photograph is illustrative. Photo: press service of the State Border Committee

Minsker Evgeniy I went with my friend to Poland for shopping. The guys took the goods for themselves, not for sale. They brought groceries and detergents.

“I took a highchair for my child,” says Evgeny. - To be honest, they scored a bit too much, it was clear that they exceeded the duty-free import norms in terms of weight. But usually, if customs officers see that you rarely travel abroad, you are bringing it for yourself, they don’t cling to a small advantage. Usually those who carry for sale are carefully checked. We hoped that we would pass.

Recall that when crossing the border no more than once every three months, a person can import duty-free 50 kg of goods for personal use, the value of which does not exceed 1,500 euros (this does not include indivisible goods - weighing 35 kg).

When crossing the EAEU border more than once every three months, you can import only 20 kilos of goods for no more than 300 euros without duty. If the limits are exceeded, you will have to pay a fee.

The guys returned home on the night of March 15, stood in line at the Polish border for two hours, spent another hour going through customs - they ended up in a shift change. Passed, issued cotton wool and drove to the Belarusian border.

“We got into the green corridor, went through passport control, drove up to the customs office,” Evgeny continues the story. - The customs officer took a look at our goods, said, guys, you have a lot of purchases, let's go for additional inspection. He sent us to another queue for additional screening. There we stood in line for an hour. Then a customs officer came up and said that we must exhibit each of our goods, it will depend on this whether we draw up one protocol or two. He made it clear that it would be better for someone alone to take the advantage and pay one fine instead of two.

The guy decided to take on the extra kilos. His friend kept about 20 kilograms worth of purchases, and Eugene took the rest.

- The advantage turned out to be concrete, I did not even expect that there would be so much. Instead of 20 kilos, 43 came out, - the young man admits. — There were doubts about the accuracy of the scales at customs. On many Polish goods, their weight is written with and without packaging. On the highchair I was carrying, the unpacked weight was listed as 9 kg, and in the package it was 10.3. But the scales showed 10.5. Written off in error. Although if you estimate from all the goods in total, it was definitely more than a kilogram.

Yevgeny was registered as a violator for trying to smuggle goods in bulk along the green corridor. At the customs, they described the purchases, photographed everything, issued a fine of 5 basic rubles - 122.5 rubles. The whole procedure took 4 hours.

- At this time, the car was driven into a parking lot, put between metal poles, the back of the car was raised, spikes were put under the wheels, and they were locked. I felt like a criminal, - the guy shares his impressions. - When everything seemed to settle down, I asked the customs officers what to do next. Three options were proposed. The first is to leave the excess for storage at customs and pick it up the next time I go to Poland. One kilogram of storage costs 2 rubles per day. That is, for 23 kilos - more than 57 rubles. And if we take into account that, according to the law, I can go to Poland again no sooner than in two weeks, then the bill grows to 800 rubles. The second option - I still did not understand what its essence was, but we were offered to issue some kind of piece of paper for 50 euros, another 15 to pay for the registration itself. Then you need to go with the goods to the regional customs, where for 5 euros you need to issue some more documents and pay customs clearance - 4 euros for each extra kilogram. The third option is to return to Poland, leave the advantage there and return to the border.

“The customs officers did not allow us to throw the excess into the trash”

The cheapest option seemed to the guys to return to Poland. But at the Polish border they were told that they would have to pay a heavy fine to enter.

- The Polish border guard explained to us that if we enter the territory of Poland, then with the goods we must stand in the red corridor. Since we issued cotton wool for him, but did not take him out, we were fined. And in Belarus, a fine was again shone for an advantage. Some vicious circle! the young man is outraged. “I once saw a box of champagne on the side of the road in no man's land. Apparently someone got rid of it. I tell a friend, let's put the goods there, someone will take it for themselves. So they did.

With relief, the friends again went to the Belarusian border, but the border guard did not let them through.

We explained that we had left excess goods in neutral territory. But he ordered to return and take everything, otherwise a fine of 1000 base. We were also not allowed to throw the excess weight into the bin at the border, they said that you can throw a piece of paper into the trash if you ate candy. Detergents and products are not allowed. I had to enter the Belarusian border again with “overweight”.

The customs officer who checked the guys for the first time suggested that they use the remaining two options - to leave the excess in storage or pay a fee.

— But for us they are both very expensive! It turns out that we can’t get rid of the goods, and return home without crazy payments, says Evgeny.

By that time, the guys had already spent nine hours at the border. They ate a can of pâté, which is minus 300 grams. As a result, they again had to return to neutral territory.

- There is a border guard at the exit again. I ask if I can reload part of the goods into another car, just give it to someone. He said that on neutral territory, loading and unloading of goods is prohibited, as well as the transfer of passengers. But they showed indulgence towards us and allowed us to give our advantage to someone, - says the guy. - Then a car drove up from Grodno, which was going to Poland. We stopped at neutral territory, gave them some of the goods.

According to the calculations of young people, they no longer had an advantage, and they went to the Belarusian customs, stood in the red corridor.

- We decided that if there is a minimal overweight, we will give these couple of kilos for storage. I declared my high chair, they decided to weigh our goods again. I put the chair on the same scale as the first time, they showed 11.7 kg, although the first time it was 10.5. From all the goods, the advantage turned out to be 3 kilograms. How did it happen? Why are scales not validated? Evgeny asks. - But this time they didn’t find fault with the advantage, they realized that since the scales only wound up 1.5 kilos on the chair, then everything is fine with the weight. And we were released.

According to the guy, after this story, he "will never again take more goods than it should be."

Photo: GTK

"Paying a fine from customs payments does not release the goods"

For clarifications on what to do if suddenly a person went through the purchases by weight, we turned to the Grodno regional customs.

“To avoid such situations, you must first read the rules for moving goods across the customs border,” recommends the head of the Grodno Regional Customs Department Denis Danilov. — Such information is freely available on the unified Internet portal of the customs authorities of the Republic of Belarus. In addition, you can always contact the customs office for clarification either by phone or by sending a written request.

Denis Danilov says that if there is any doubt about which corridor it is better to pass the border, it is worth getting into the “red” one or asking the customs officer before entering the corridor.

- Always remember that by choosing "green", you declare that you do not have goods that need to be declared in writing. And if customs officers find violations of the norms established for the movement of goods, a person can be fined. What happened to Eugene.

Customs officials remind that the goods are checked by every person crossing the border. That is, if several people are traveling in one car, each must separately present their goods for inspection.

- If there are questions to the border crossing, his car is placed on a special site until the end of the necessary customs operations. This is done so that the driver could not leave the checkpoint, - explains the head of the department of the Grodno regional customs. - Speaking specifically about the described case, it was found that the last time one of the citizens crossed the border on March 2, 2018, that is, three months have not yet passed since the last trip. Accordingly, the goods weighing 44 kg he moved could not be classified as goods for personal use. For the fact that the young man did not declare the goods, he was brought to administrative responsibility.

Denis Danilov says that Yevgeny did not hide the goods from customs control and admitted his guilt. Therefore, he received the minimum fine - 5 basic, or 122 rubles 50 kopecks.

“But paying a fine for a committed administrative offense does not exempt from paying customs duties for imported goods,” emphasizes Denis Danilov. - The citizen was explained that he is obliged to independently dispose of the goods within the framework of the current legislation.

The picture is illustrative. Photo: GTK

Excess can be taken abroad or left for storage

Customs officials say that in this case, the goods are subject to presidential decree No. 360, so Yevgeny had three options.

The first is to pay customs duties and taxes for the goods. All necessary documents are drawn up on the spot by customs officers. The second option is to arrange transit and pay the customs duty at the place of residence. In this case, additional cash costs arise in connection with the execution of a transit declaration and placement in a temporary storage warehouse at a departmental customs clearance point. The third option is that the goods can be exported outside the Eurasian Economic Union.

- As for storage, customs does not provide such a service. Only if a person refuses the proposed options for resolving the issue, the goods are subject to detention and are placed in a warehouse at a customs clearance point,” says Denis Danilov. - If Evgeny had refused, then the goods would have been placed in a warehouse in the Berestovitsa RPTO. And the amount for two weeks of its storage would not be 800 rubles, but 34 rubles 4 kopecks. One full or partial day of storage costs 0.1 base unit. The maximum storage period for goods is 30 days, and for quickly perishable goods - 24 hours.

To return a product left in storage, a person must pay the amount charged for storage, as well as customs duties and taxes. And only after that he will be able to pick up his goods and import them to Belarus.

— In the case under consideration, the young people decided to take the goods out of the EAEU. When they once again tried to enter Belarus, they chose the “red” corridor and filled out a customs declaration. Duty-free import norms were not violated, so customs control operations were carried out within 20 minutes, Denis Danilov comments on the situation.

Regarding commodity scales, on which imported goods are weighed at the checkpoints of the Grodno regional customs, customs officers say that the percentage of error is indicated in the passport for each specific scale.

- On the scales on which the goods of a young man were weighed, when weighing up to 100 kg, the error is plus or minus 200 g, up to 500 kg - plus or minus 400 g, - customs officers explain. — All scales are checked regularly. There is an entry about this in the technical passports, and special control marks are pasted on the scales themselves about the last verification carried out and its validity period. In case of doubt about the weight of the goods, they can be weighed on other scales under the supervision of a customs officer.

Violations can result in fines and deportation.

By the way, the guys could get another fine, because, as it turned out, they also violated several rules for staying in the zone between the state border and the checkpoint.

The State Border Committee says that, as Yevgeny put it, there is no neutral zone between the checkpoints of the two states. Part of the path between them belongs to one country, the second part belongs to another.

The resolution of the Council of Ministers “On the State Border of the Republic of Belarus” states that loading and unloading of goods is prohibited on the territory between the State Border and the corresponding checkpoint. In addition, it is not allowed to park vehicles, boarding and disembarking people from it. It is also forbidden to be there if it is not related to crossing the state border.

For violations of the border regime or at a checkpoint, you can get a fine of up to 50 basic (1225 rubles) for each of the violations. A foreigner can not only be fined, but also deported.

A resident of Russian Rudnya: “Belarusians will stop coming to us for shopping, and many outlets will have to close”

In recent years, drivers crossing the border between Belarus and Russia have not experienced any problems. As a rule, there was no special control, documents were not asked. But on February 1, everything changed, the head of the Russian FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, ordered the introduction. The relevant documents are published on the official Internet portal of legal information.

The regional border departments are instructed “to establish the places and time of entry (passage) of persons and vehicles to the border zone; organize the installation of warning signs at the entrances to the border zone”. The order comes into force on February 7, 2017.

We decided to see how citizens of Belarus now cross the border with the Russian Federation.

So, the bus Vitebsk-Liozno-Rudnya-Smolensk leaves the bus station at 10 hours 45 minutes.

Bus on the route Vitebsk-Smolensk. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

The cost of a ticket to the nearest Russian city of Rudnya is 5 rubles 52 kopecks. By the way, when buying a ticket for a bus route to Russia, you need an identity document (passport, birth certificate). And, as explained bus station cashier, tickets can only be purchased by citizens of Belarus and Russia.

In the urban village of Liozno, the bus stops for five minutes.

Bus station in Liozno. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

Ahead is the border of Belarus and Russia.

The Russian border is ahead. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

There is no queue of cars at the border checkpoint. Only in the parking lot were waiting with several trucks with Lithuanian, Polish and Belarusian numbers.

There are no Belarusian border guards on the border with Russia. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

Russian customs officers stopped the bus and checked the documents of all passengers.

Passport control for bus routes was introduced in autumn 2016. Several times even those foreigners who have a residence permit in Belarus were landed at the border, shared Bus driver .

Indeed, in early November, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, said that for many years foreign citizens freely crossed the Russian-Belarusian border without going through passport control, but the situation in the world has changed dramatically.

Through the ground Russian-Belarusian border now to citizens of third countries, since there are no international checkpoints there. Foreign citizens can enter Russia only through Latvia or the Novye Yurkovichi checkpoint in the Bryansk region, which has international status, as it is located at the junction of the borders of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.

Meanwhile, for residents of the Russian city of Rudnya, the emergence of new rules at the border is no longer news. According to local resident Sergei :

We fear that the city will fall into the border zone. And you will need to get a pass to come to Rudnya.Belarusians will stop coming to us for shopping, and many retail outlets will have to close.

Rudnya may soon become a city where it will be impossible to enter without a pass. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

So far, there are many Belarusians in Rudna who come for shopping. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

Abandoned cinema building in the center of the city of Rudnya. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

By the way, the bus station stopped working in Rudna. Tickets can only be purchased from the bus driver for 200 Russian rubles.

There is no cash desk in the bus station. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

Bus station in Rudna, which does not work. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

But when crossing the Russian-Belarusian border on the way back, border control was not carried out.

There are no Belarusian border posts on the border. Photo by Svetlana Vasilyeva

And new details about the sensational border order can be found.