All border countries of the EU have closed the entry of Russians by car

In Poland, from midnight on September 17, a ban on the entry into the country of cars registered in Russia came into force. Their entry is interpreted as an attempt to export prohibited by sanctions. Thus, entry for cars with Russian license plates was closed to all five European Union (EU) countries bordering Russian territory, except for cases of transit to the Kaliningrad region. The threat of confiscation of personal belongings of Russian citizens – from smartphones to clothes and toilet paper – as punishment for attempting to circumvent sanctions on their export cannot be ruled out. Earlier, on September 12, Latvia and Lithuania stopped allowing cars with Russian license plates, and on September 13, Estonia (with an exception for buses, motorcycles and diplomats’ cars). Finland also introduced a ban on September 15, although as early as September 12, the country’s Foreign Ministry stated that it would not follow Brussels’ recommendations.

The countries of Southern Europe that are members of the EU have not yet introduced such restrictions and have not explained their understanding of EU sanctions. The remaining such states are Bulgaria and Greece, where you can travel through Georgia and Turkey, or from Georgia to Bulgaria by ferry without the threat of confiscation of your car and personal belongings, notes Nikita Gusev, a senior researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Bulgaria has not yet decided what to do in such cases, Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov said in an interview with the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency on September 14. “Many owners of Russian real estate remain in the country, Russians continue to receive visas, but we have not yet seen practice on this issue from other EU countries. Perhaps Sofia wants to wait until a common European approach is established,” says Gusev, noting that the threat of a ban on the entry of cars with Russian license plates is high.

In addition to Greece and Bulgaria, Norway has not made any statements about the likelihood of confiscation of personal vehicles and belongings from incoming Russians. It is not a member of the EU, but is part of the Schengen zone and implements European sanctions against Russia. There is a debate within the Norwegian government over the entry ban for Russian cars, The Barents Observer wrote on September 15. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry told the publication that it “took note” of the statement of the European Commission and its interpretation of the sanctions regulations.

“We are taking a closer look at what this will mean for Norwegian law,” the department said. Sweden, a member of the EU that borders Norway and lies across the Sound Strait, Denmark also did not make statements on the interpretation of the EU sanctions regulations in the direction of the legality of confiscation of personal cars and other property.

Only passenger vehicles can now enter Norway from Russia: the only automobile checkpoint, Storskog, was closed by the country’s authorities to trucks in April 2022. Travel by private passenger vehicles remains possible.

“In the case of Norway, the lack of a clear position is due to the fact that it is not part of the EU and incorporates Brussels’ restrictive measures into its own legislation; it has a certain freedom to interpret and apply them. Typically, Norway has adapted EU sanctions to its own conditions; it is not obliged to follow the explanations of the European Commission (EC) directly,” Nikita Belukhin, a junior researcher at IMEMO, explained to Vedomosti. In addition, according to him, there are close border ties between the Murmansk region and the Norwegian Finnmark, where a large Russian community lives. Many Norwegians from this area still also have economic ties in North-West Russia, Belukhin recalled. Perhaps Oslo believes that it would be more useful not to introduce restrictions similar to those in the EU for now. Finally, Norway chairs the Arctic Council and would not want to further conflict with Russia against this background, the expert says. Each EU country decides for itself whether to adhere to the EC recommendations or not, and if so, how. The countries of the association, which have not adopted any restrictions, are still relatively safe de jure, says Yuri Fedyukin, managing partner of the law firm Enterprise Legal Solutions.

The introduction of official bans on the entry of Russian cars began after on September 8, the European Commission clarified the rules for applying existing sanctions, indicating that entry into the EU countries on personal cars (customs code 8703 – cars for transporting less than 10 people) registered in Russia will be regarded as a prohibited import. This applies even when they are used for personal purposes and not for commercial purposes. Exceptions are made for EU citizens and their immediate families. On September 12, the EC added that Russians’ cars could be used to evade sanctions, which explains the increased attention to them, but stressed that personal care products and clothing are of “non-significant concern from a sanctions evasion perspective” and therefore national authorities should continue to enforce the ban “in a proportionate and reasonable manner.”

The reason for these clarifications was the incident in Germany on September 6, when a Russian woman’s car was confiscated. She was returning to Russia via Germany in a personal Mercedes car and was supposed to take a ferry to Helsinki in Travemünde, but 70 km before the crossing, the car was seized by a patrol. Even earlier, in July, the central information desk of the Main Directorate of Customs of Germany reported that cars with Russian license plates could be confiscated from Russians due to sanctions.

In October 2022, the EU adopted the eighth package of anti-Russian sanctions, containing Art. 3i of sectoral regulation 833/2014. It prohibits the “acquisition, import or transfer, directly or indirectly, of goods that generate significant revenue for Russia” if they are of Russian origin or exported from the country. The list of goods includes cars and other vehicles. As Sergei Glandin, head of the compliance and sanctions law practice at BGP Litigation, notes, the legal conflict occurred due to a confusion of customs regulations – the export of goods for profit and the export for personal purposes. The EC’s interpretation is essentially an interpretation in isolation from the goals and objectives of the regulatory legal acts on sanctions, which did not talk about prohibitions for ordinary citizens, continues Glandin.

“But, based on the situation, all that remains is to advise when entering Germany not to take goods that could be interpreted as being imported for resale, including new clothes. The same is true for other countries that have reported bans. I believe that in the near future there should be a general clarification from all 27 EU countries,” says Glandin.

Restrictions are introduced on the basis of acts of authorized government bodies, and each such act can be challenged in the manner prescribed by law in order to recognize it as unconstitutional, as an option – such a decision can be appealed to the ECHR, although after Russia withdraws from it this may become a problem for Russians, says Fedyukin.

Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council Ivan Timofeev also considers it possible to appeal to the courts of the EU member country whose customs seized the car. The expert noted the relative prospects of such cases in court, since the plaintiff can argue the illegality of customs actions by their inconsistency with the official purpose of the sanctions. At the same time, as Timofeev says, such processes are fraught with large-scale time and monetary costs.