From: OpenDemocracy.net
In Belarus, smuggling is a fine art, and, unlike stealing, morally acceptable.
It is Belarus’s fate to be located between two economic blocs – Russia and the EU. While the country’s eastern border is largely symbolic – all the more so since the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) treaty came into force on 1 January – the absence of any integration projects, and the failure of Minsk to establish strong ties with the EU has ensured that its border to the west remains very much intact.
Entrenched borders and stringent customs regulations may be an obstacle to free trade between countries, but they also provide an illegal source of income for enterprising citizens. Smuggling in Belarus is flourishing: both on the border with EU states such as Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, and its southern border with Ukraine. Belarusian media features stories about the seizure of contraband goods practically every week, but the reports cover only a small fraction of seizures, and an even smaller number of successful anti-smuggling operations receive coverage.
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According to the border authorities, the goods most commonly smuggled from Belarus into the EU are cigarettes, whereas from Russia to the EU through Belarus, cigarettes and alcohol take the lead. By contrast, Ukraine’s largest unofficial ‘exports’ are meat, alcohol, and food products. Amber is the most common contraband item from Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave on the Baltic; and clothing, food products, and drugs are the items most often smuggled from Europe into Belarus and Russia.
