The customs of the EU countries should confiscate personal belongings from Russian tourists in a “proportionate and balanced” manner, while the European Commission has prepared instructions on what to confiscate from Russian tourists, however, by and large, everything is up to the specific customs officer. Such brief conclusions can be drawn from a wide-ranging interview given to rtvi by a representative of the European Commission (EC), Daniel Ferri.
In an interview, he emphasized several times that the sanctions were adopted with the aim of “reducing the Kremlin’s financial capabilities.” However, the EU has at least announced the gradations according to which Russians making their way into the EU will be in trouble.
“Russian cars cannot enter the European Union, this import ban has been in effect for more than a year, and each EU member state must comply with this rule accordingly. When it comes to other points, member states must take into account the proportionality and reasonableness of the situation,” he said. The representative also added that the European Commission has prepared “some instructions” for the EU states on how to apply in practice the rules regarding the ban on the import of certain goods into Russia.
We would like to remind you that the entry of Russians with personal cars was blocked along the entire perimeter, including the route through Turkey. Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Norway introduced a ban on the entry of Russian cars. In the south, they were joined by Bulgaria and, judging by the statements of the affected tourists, Greece.
But Germany was the first to set the tone — the country began to impeccably comply with EU requirements regarding Russian tourists and their property. According to new statements, Germany refused to make exceptions for Russians who entered, so confiscated everything from them in a row.
Few people decided to refuse sanctions from the European Commission. In particular, Italy came forward with a statement that the country will not take away cars from tourists from Russia, and even more so personal belongings. The second question is that getting to it by car is, to put it mildly, problematic for Russians.