Russian goods still travel across the border with the European Union, but not in Russian trucks. The car is changed right at the border from the Russian side — and then the cargo is transported by a car from the EU.
Yle writes about it.
"I am taking the car empty to the Russian side of the border. The car is loaded there, and then I take the cargo back," Andriy Motsevits, the driver of the Latvian-registered car, told reporters.
The transshipment of the goods from the Russian truck to it takes place on the other side of the border in the zone of the Russian customs.
On April 8, the European Union banned the movement of Russian and Belarusian trucks on the territory of the EU. Russia did not respond in kind, so European trucks can still operate in the Russian Federation.
But usually, trucks just stop at the border to bring or pick up cargo. Sometimes on the Russian side of the border, they simply change the car that drives the trailer, and this combination comes to Finland. This is also allowed.
"If a Finnish tractor has a Russian trailer, it is interpreted as a Finnish combination, and its transportation across the border is completely legal," says Chief Customs Inspector Jarkko Fagerström.