Prime Minister Kristen Michal says Estonia must do everything it can to impede the transporting of sanctioned goods through the country and to bolster national security. “Unfortunately, sanctions continue to be disregarded and prohibited goods continue to be transported across our borders, just as Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine and its people continues unabated,” he said. “By implementing full customs checks we can make it much more difficult to circumvent sanctions, and stifle Russian efforts to feed its war machine.”
Prime Minister Michal added that local governments and bus and freight companies had been informed of the changes.
Introducing full customs checks in place of the risk-based checks that have been carried out to date will take time, and the number of border crossings into the Russian Federation is likely to decrease.
The government last discussed options for enhanced customs checks on the Estonian-Russian border on 4 July, taking the decision to step up monitoring of the movement of goods subject to sanctions.
