A ban on imported consumer goods from Russia recently came into force across the EU. However, observers say fully implementing the ban could be impossible and public shaming may be the only tool at hand.
From now on, Lithuania’s customs officials will be check incoming cargo even more carefully as a ban on the import of consumer goods from Russia and Belarus – including cosmetics, cleaning products, clothing, toiletries, alcohol, cigarettes and other items – enters into force in the EU.
“The sanctions regulations, both for Belarus and Russia, apply to all individuals and firms in the EU, and there are no exemptions,” says Vygandas Paigozinas, deputy head of the Customs Department. That includes not only commercial shipments, but also goods brought by travellers for personal use.
The point of the sanctions is to hit the two countries economically, “to reduce the potential of both Russia and Belarus and limit their ability to continue military action in Ukraine”, he adds.
Experts say that Russian-made goods will still appear in Lithuania: various intermediaries are already offering to bring goods from Russia via third countries, such as Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, or Georgia.
Lithuanian companies have already received offers to help circumvent the sanctions, says Sigitas Besagirskas, president of the Vilnius Association of Industry and Business.
“What the various pseudo-consultants are suggesting is that if you need a Russian product, you make a contract with a Kazakh company or an Estonian company, and you get that product as an Azeri product, for example. You buy an Azerbaijani product from an Estonian company, but the real country of origin is Russia,” he says.
Russian cosmetics and food products have been quite popular with Lithuanians, some of whom may continue to seek them out, says Lineta Ramonienė, professor at the ISM University of Management and Economics in Vilnius.
“As far as we know from informal surveys, Lithuanians are still looking for cosmetics in the grey market. And businesses are still shipping the goods to satisfy the Lithuanian consumer, mostly cosmetics products,” she says.
According to Besagirskas, it may be difficult to stop Russian imports, if they are marked as coming from another country.
“I think there are and will be such companies [bringing Russian products], and I think the only way to go about is to call them out publicly,” says the president of the of the Vilnius Association of Industry and Business.
Paigozinas of the Customs Department says that the ban will mean additional checks that customs officials will have to carry out, but the measure will work to some extent.
“We also require additional transport documents, payment for the goods, transport contracts, consignment documents, in order to be able to conclude that the goods are not of Russian or Belarusian origin and to verify that they are coming from third countries,” he says.
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