Russia prepares to close the border with Belarus to foreign transport
Russia intends to change the border-crossing rules for long-distance truck drivers of the third countries entering its territory from Belarus, reports DW.
At the end of July, Russian border guards received instructions how to implement additional control measures. They were obliged to stop drivers with any passports from entering the territory of Russia, except for Russian and Belarusian.
However, on the night of August 1, an order was issued not to apply new measures. An introduction of this procedure was postponed indefinitely.
From October 2016, Russian border guards stopped letting in the citizens of the EU and the Eurasian Economic Union (Kazakhstan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan) via the border with Belarus. Due to this, they have to enter the Russian Federation from the territory of other countries.
According to truck drivers, now the Krasnoye checkpoint looks like a border in its classical sense. First, one must go through passport control, and only those who passed it, proceed further to weight, transportation, customs and phytosanitary control.
Belarus and Russia form a "union state", and for citizens of both countries, there is no border control, as such.
President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko expressed dissatisfaction with the Russian policy towards the common border.