More than 3,000 attempts to circumvent EU sanctions against Belarus and Russia were stopped in Latvia in 9.5 months of 2022, the State Revenue Service of Latvia reports.

"In the course of monitoring the implementation of sanctions imposed by the European Union against Russia and Belarus, the customs department of the State Revenue Service detected violations in 3,040 cases from March to mid-December 2022 and prohibited the export, import or transit of certain types of goods from these countries," the statement said. messages.

Violations related to export from the EU or import to Latvia of goods from Russia and Belarus, which are prohibited by export or import sanctions.

As a result of customs control measures, the export of multifunctional machines, transformers, spare parts for equipment, vehicles, turbojet engines and various mechanisms is prohibited.

Prevented attempts to export medical equipment, chemical products, auto parts, fire-fighting equipment, loads of paper, cardboard and other goods from the EZ.

The customs also banned the export of some luxury items (expensive cars, motorcycles, coffee machines, watches, shoes and other goods).

Most often, Latvian customs officers detect attempts to circumvent sanctions by using inappropriate Combined Nomenclature (CN) commodity codes or understating the value of luxury goods.

In a number of cases, it was found that double sets of accompanying documents were issued for the cargo with different information about the recipient and the delivery address, which confirms the fact of the actual export of the goods to Russia.

By December 22, 2022, the Tax and Customs Police Department of the State Revenue Service of Latvia opened 114 criminal cases under the article "Violation of sanctions imposed by international organizations and the Republic of Latvia".