Customs probes into 120 transports under EU sanctions against Russia

Finnish Customs has started about 250 preliminary surveys concerning transports under EU sanctions, of which about 120 cases are currently under preliminary investigation, said Customs in a press release on Tuesday.

Custom has continued enforcing the sanctions imposed by the EU against Russia as an essential element of its daily enforcement work.

Transports under sanctions have mostly contained IT products and other electronics.

However, sanctions also cover for example boating equipment, drones and optical devices. Customs enforces sanctions based on risk analysis of goods flows, and carries out physical enforcement at customs offices.

The European Union has imposed altogether seven packages of extensive import and export sanctions against Russia due to the attack on Ukraine. As the implementing authority, Customs enforces sanctions as a part of normal customs enforcement.

“We enforce sanctions based on acquired information as extensively as possible. We have shaped our risk analysis concerning flows of goods so that the enforcement of EU sanctions against Russia is pragmatic and efficient,” said Sami Rakshit, Director of the Enforcement Department.

“We have selected more than 16 000 cases for processing based on EU sanctions against Russia. We have done targeted controls on almost a thousand of these cases,” Rakshit added.

In March-May, the volumes of product categories under sanctions increased as the EU imposed new packages of sanctions. Some of the products under enforcement of sanctions are dual-use goods, that is, products that can be used for both civilian and military purposes.

In March-May, the transports that Customs stopped contained especially IT products such as computers, hard drives and other electronics, as well as boating and maritime equipment, boats and optical devices. Transports under sanctions also contained tow hitches for trucks and equipment spare parts.

In July-August, transport under sanctions contained especially computers, mobile phones and other electronics. Customs also intercepted boating equipment such as fish radars and drones.