“Eurobureaucrats hit the most loyal part of Russians” – Kommersant FM

The State Duma proposed closing the borders with the European Union in response to a similar decision by the Baltic countries, Poland and Finland. The initiative was taken by the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Alexei Chepa. In his opinion, for these countries it is possible to maintain only transit through Russia, but at the same time significantly increase tariffs. The deputy admitted that such a step harms the interests of the Russian economy, however, some retaliatory steps, in his opinion, are simply necessary. Previously, acting head of the Federal Customs Service Ruslan Davydov promised that Moscow “will not engage in such lawlessness,” and ruled out retaliatory steps. Kommersant FM columnist Mikhail Gurevich also considers the closure of borders by the European Union an extremely unfortunate decision.

The story of the ban on the entry of cars with Russian registration into the European Union is reminiscent of an old Jewish joke, where God dictates the rules to Moses and says: “Do not boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” Moses is trying to interpret the words of the Almighty – is it necessary to use separate dishes for meat and milk, or to take a break in eating between meat and dairy? In the end, God, tired of repeating the postulate, waves his hand and says: “Do what you want.”

So, let me remind you that, as planned, European sanctions were intended to limit Russian imports to Eurozone countries. However, in reality, it was not government agencies that came under attack, but ordinary citizens, not only Russians, but also their own. A kind of excess of an official happened when politicians made a decision and entrusted its implementation to the Brussels bureaucrats, who, in turn, developed frantic activity and wrote regulations with strange wording.

According to these formulations, customs officers should not allow entry or confiscate cars from incoming Russians. Initially, there was also talk about gadgets and toilet paper, but on this issue the danger receded. According to European Commission spokesman Daniel Ferri, clothing worn by a person crossing the border is unlikely to be aimed at circumventing EU sanctions – this is common sense. The situation here is completely different than with an expensive car, and, most likely, this is taken into account when EU member states apply sanctions, the EC representative noted.

The appeal to common sense is laudable, but many lawyers working on the problem believe that it, like logic, is still sorely lacking.

A year ago, the Baltic countries, Poland and Finland banned the entry of Russian tourists. That is, today only those with a residence permit in Europe or holders of several passports cross the border. In addition, there are a number of cars in the European Union with Russian license plates that belong to people who left the country after February 2022 or to local residents.

Actually, all of them are subject to sanctions restrictions. By the way, not for the first time. When credit cards issued by domestic banks were prohibited, the inconvenience was addressed to the same group of the population. It is unlikely that they will expect the Kremlin to protect their rights. Official Moscow does not declare any protests. Representatives of the Russian authorities are only waving their fingers at their temples, commenting on what is happening, and this is the case when it is difficult to disagree with them.

In essence, with their decision and proposed interpretation, the European bureaucrats hit the most loyal part of Russians and at the same time allowed Russia’s northwestern neighbors to introduce yet another high-profile ban. Like, we didn’t just let the Russians in, now we won’t let them in even more decisively. We will also punish all our people who are still trying to live in two countries and have a car with a tricolor on its license plates. Only the Russian economy did not suffer. We are already not doing so well with auto exports, but everything else is sold and bought without the help of private transport, toilet paper and personal belongings.

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