Successful cross-border customs cooperation
Through a well-established cooperation the customs services in the four countries in the Barents region contribute to keep the level of smuggling across the borders low.
Representatives from the customs services in Russia, Finland and Sweden recently met in Murmansk for a coordinating meeting.
- The practical cooperation with our Scandinavian colleagues is based on exchange of information that is used in investigation of administrative violations and crimes, says Aleksey Baturin, Deputy Head of the Murmansk Customs Service to customs information web site Tks.ru. The quick exchange of information makes investigation more effective, he underlines.
Russia’s trade with Scandinavia across the country’s border in the Barents region amounted to 4.5 billion USD in the period 2007-2009, Tks.ru reports. More than four billion tons of goods were transported across the borders in the same period.
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Every part of the Russian border is characterized by certain violations of the law that are typical for that region. In the Barents region these are smuggling of timber, wood and fish products. On the border between the Republic of Karelia and Finland most violations on customs laws are registered within export of unmanufactured timber, and in Arkhangelsk more than 64 percent of all criminal charges concern smuggling of wood and timber.
In additions, there are registered cases of smuggling of narcotics, weapons and ammunition and attempts to bring cars across the border using fraud documents.
The customs officers from Scandinavia are mostly worried about the potential for drug trafficking from Russia. According to the Russian Customs Service, the drug situation in Murmansk Oblast is stable, and no established channels for transfer of drugs across the borders to the countries in the Barents region have been revealed. This is confirmed from both Russian, Finnish and Norwegian police and customs services.
