Lithuania will close down two more checkpoints on the border with Belarus as of 1 March 2024, BNS reports. Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said that closing the checkpoints in Lavoriskes and Raigardas would allow authorities to enforce sanctions, prevent smuggling, and screen incoming travellers more effectively. Also, the National Security Commission (NSK) proposed cutting the…
Latvia’s State Revenue Service (VID) has stopped over 5,000 shipments of goods for possible violation of EU sanctions against Russia and Belarus, LSM reports. VID has initiated more than 250 criminal cases over sanctions violations, including 114 in 2022 and 144 in 2023. Raimonds Zukuls, director of VID’s customs administration, said that most of the…
The Baltic States and Poland have agreed to close their borders with Belarus in the event of a “critical incident” involving the Russian private military company, Wagner Group, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski announced, TVP World reports. Following their meeting in Warsaw, the Baltic and Polish interior ministers demanded that Belarus expel the Wagner mercenaries…
Estonia has extradited Russian citizen Vadim Konoshchenok, suspected employee of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), to the US, BNS reports. Konoshchenok was arraigned at a federal court in New York on 14 July 2023. He is suspected of violating sanctions by smuggling strictly regulated electronics and tactical ammunition of US origin from Estonia to Russia….
Lithuania remains an EU leader in terms of the market share of contraband cigarettes, according to KPMG’s market research, DELFI reports. The study found that altogether 2.63 billion cigarettes were consumed in Lithuania in 2022, which was 0.2 billion less than in 2021. Contraband cigarettes accounted for 0.59 billion of the total, which was 19.2%…