Belarus tightens control over movement of goods on main Russia-Belarus roads

MINSK, June 17 (BelTA) – On June 17, at 9am, Belarus enhanced monitoring over the movement of goods on the main Belarusian-Russian roads, Chairman of the State Customs Committee (SCC) of Belarus Alexander Shpilevsky told reporters on June 16. The measure was taken following the decision of the Belarusian head of state. The decision is sound, according to the SCC chairman. “For the 15 days in June 2009 the Belarusian customs has seized Br8,620 billion worth of smuggled goods. In 2008 an estimated $10 million of goods vanished on the way to Kaliningrad,” Alexander Shpilevsky said. The introduction of a stricter control over the movement of goods by Belarus is a symmetrical response to the actions of the Russian side, State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus Yuri Zhadobin told reporters. “Belarus was forced to introduce a tougher control over the movement of goods on the major highways connecting the two countries. This step will be similar to the actions the Russian Federal Customs Service has been taking over many years already,” Yuri Zhadobin said. He stressed that these measures are just a mirror-like response to the customs supervision exercised by the Russian side. According to Yuri Zhadobin, the Belarusian side is sorry to state that there have been no changes in the attitude of the Russian side towards the cooperation in the recent days. “There is no constructive approach aimed at reaching a mutually acceptable agreement. Using far-fetched pretexts they keep causing damage to our economic security,” the State Secretary of the Security Council of Belarus said. He added that in no circumstances these measures will affect the interests of ordinary people. “We apologize for possible inconvenience. We believe it is not our fault,” Yuri Zhadobin said.

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