Is it the Echo of the War? :: Charter'97 :: News

Yesterday Syargei Barisiuk, official of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Belarus, declared that the country had enforced the custom’s monitoring of goods transit to and from Kaliningrad. According to him, facilitation of the custom’s procedure was directed at preventing illegal deliveries of certain foreign goods to the country under the guise of the goods of the Russian origin. Meanwhile, as the Novie Izvestia says, the Russian Duma is waiting for new sanctions from Belarus.

As Syargei Barisiuk reported yesterday, shipments coming from Kaliningrad to the Russian mainland without an authentic confirmation of their Russian origin “will undergo a general transit clearance.” He also gave figures of losses incurred to the Belarusian economy by the illegal transit. “ The performance reports for 2005-2006 showed that 47 batches of goods of around USD 10 million total value were not taken outside Belarus. Those where the batches which followed the simplified procedure of the Kaliningrad transit”, the official stressed.

At the Belarusian customs’ nobody could explain to the Novie Izvestia how “the authenticity of the Russian origin” would be verified. It may seem strange, but the customs’ officers competent in that matter were not available at the moment. At the Russian customs and in the ministry for economic development of the Russian Federation the Novie Izvestia were given no competent answer either. It so happens that, Russia doesn’t control if transit goods reach their places of destination or remain in Belarus.

None of the exporters does actually doubt that violations of the Russian goods transit really happened, but the question is why it has been decided to introduce strict rules at this very moment and what are its implied consequences. At least for the Russian policymakers, the restrictions imposed by the neighbors were really a surprise. Chairman of the Russian Duma Committee on international affairs Konstantin Kosachiov became alert when he heard the news. ”I would not wish the Russian- Belarusian conflict to be expanded. The problems between our countries were solved at the summit level and the arrangements acquired the legal status and they are to be put into practice. So, the matter is closed,” reported the deputy to the Novie Izvestia.

Though the transit violations cost is not considerable (USD 10 million), it may make the concerned recall that not only oil is transferred through Belarus. By the way, what a coincidence, but it was also yesterday when Deputy Chairman of the Russian Duma Committee on C.I.S. affairs Sergei Antufiev announced that a special seating of the lower chamber on the errors which had caused the Russian- Belarusian conflict and the measures on such cases prevention in future was to be held that week.

“Belarus has got accustomed to use the Russian subsidies and will continue sending us messages that the termination of the economic support will cost much for Russia. The trump cards are still with Minsk, among these are the Russian military bases in that country and the possibility of imposing restriction on human and product transit from and to Kaliningrad. To get ready for this, we’ll hold a special seating of the Duma with invited representatives of the Government, including the ministry of defense. We have prepared a set of documents which will be sounded by Boris Grizlov in the form of a report. At present, the Duma is not actually confident that in case of further actions taken by Belarus a similar crises won’t be repeated,” reported the deputy to the Novie Izvestia.