Last week, the European Commission announced that the entry into EU countries of vehicles with Russian license plates will be considered a prohibited import.
Photo: TASS
Planes don’t fly, trains don’t run and now cars don’t travel either. Last week, the European Commission announced that the entry into EU countries of vehicles with Russian license plates will be considered a prohibited import. That is, prohibition, arrest, confiscation. Furthermore, it is said that this has been happening for several months in Germany.
At first, only Finland spoke out against this decision. But she didn’t last long, just a couple of days and added to the sanctions. Now, in the chats of Russians in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, Finland, Poland, the picture is the same: everyone who is still on wheels thinks what to do and how to save their property.
From messages on the Internet:
“Move or hide? What do you recommend?”
“Drive before it’s too late. They are still launching normally through Poland! In Russia you can sell a car for good money.”
“The most dangerous is Germany. There, customs agents even confiscated a woman’s car in her yard. Although she usually has a residence permit (residence permit). The Finns are generally great, they gave everyone six months to pick up the cars. “They turned out to be the most decent.”
Decent: This, of course, is an exaggeration. Because basically the situation is terrible. First, let’s find out where cars with Russian license plates come from in the EU. After all, for a year now, Russians with regular tourist visas cannot enter, enter or infiltrate the territory of the EU countries around us: Finland, Latvia, Lithuania. At the EU border there were only “holes” for ordinary tourists on the Norwegian side. But it’s too far away; the flow there, in principle, cannot be large. That is, only holders of European passports or residence permits drove four-wheeled vehicles on land. And now they are also completely banned.
Moreover, we are not talking only about crossing state borders, but also about those cars that once entered the territory of Europe and remained there. Latvia and Lithuania declared that all cars with the tricolor, without exception, will be confiscated, regardless of who is driving them, a European or a Russian citizen. The same thing happens in Estonia. The Finns showed the utmost loyalty and gave citizens the right to leave the country in a car with a Russian license plate within six months. But the Germans went further: since May, before any official declaration, they were already confiscating cars with Russian license plates, invoking certain regulations.
“These messages caused a great commotion,” says the leader of the German movement “Gerrussia” (Germany – Russia), Vyacheslav Vasilyevich Seyvald. – At first it was not clear who would suffer the consequences: only Russian tourists or also Russian-speaking Germans? People have already started to tell me about specific cases in which cars are taken. Let’s take an example: a businessman who was transporting people from Germany to Kaliningrad and back to the border with Poland, in the Frankfurt area, had a minibus confiscated. Damage of approximately 30,000 euros. It is clear that the situation will only get worse. For various reasons, the West expected the sanctions to be destructive for the Russian economy. But this did not happen, although Western propaganda preaches the opposite. And then tourists come and tell us what everything is really like there. The authorities aim to limit the number of Russians in Germany so that there is no communication or exchange of information. The second factor is that his people are dissatisfied with his government and influence him, that the ship begins to rock, as they say. That’s why all this is done.
I WILL DISTRIBUTE YOUR “DRINK” UNDER YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
After the statement of the European Commissioners last week, it became clear to everyone that it is now dangerous to drive with a Russian license plate. People began to think about how to save their property. There has been a slight boom in the car transport and transport market.
– Today, September 16, is the first day of the ban on entry to Finka with Russian license plates. I don’t know what’s coming out yet. “Many of the guys will leave today, we will find out later in the evening,” a car driving student who advertises in thematic chats writes to me.
– What documents do you use to travel?
– I have a Canadian and Russian passport. Then everything is safe.
Mikhail said that he studies at the University of Saint Petersburg and that he started moving cars in 2022.
– People started to leave, demand started to rise. We have been running for a year and a half now. Overall, demand has not decreased over the past year and a half.
Mikhail drives a car from Helsinki to St. Petersburg in 5 or 6 hours and 500 euros.
– Like now? Is there a rush?
– Not precisely. The Finns gave us six months to leave, which means you can still drive a car safely until March. Knowing our people, there will be greater demand before March. They call and write from Germany, France, Italy. But I’m not very willing to accept those orders.
– Because?
– Dangerous. They say you can also get caught in a criminal case. A couple of weeks ago I received an order from Germany and immediately told the customer that, at his own risk, if they confiscated it, it wasn’t my fault. But everything went well. Additionally, I sailed by ferry to Finland; It was the only one on the entire huge ship with a Russian license plate. Although before there were no crowds there. I also drove the car from Nice in early August. Everything went well too. So in principle I can accept it, but it is more expensive and I am not responsible for the confiscation.
SKIP GERMANY WITH POLISH LICENSE PLATES
Prices for moving a car from Berlin are four times higher than from Helsinki. On average they ask for 2000 euros or more.
“Yes, don’t worry, the main thing is to go through Germany to the border with Poland,” one of those “assistants” reassures me, who introduced myself as the owner of a car stuck in the German capital. – It is just over 100 kilometers from Berlin, but it is already quiet there. The kids travel all the time.
– That is, when you leave Poland your car won’t be confiscated at the border?
– Not yet. But the situation changes every day. Let’s wait a couple more days and we’ll see.
Other distillers I found on the Internet offered a generally semi-legal option for 3,000 euros.
– We will put Polish license plates on your car. Then we will arrive in Warsaw. And then everything should be fine.
– Is this a violation of the law? What happens if they get caught?
– Isn’t it an offense to remove cars for no reason? They won’t catch us, we’ve done it many times before. Girl, do I need to move the car or you? My cars are fine.
Buyers are also actively benefiting now. “We will buy cars with Russian license plates. Day after day.” The prices, of course, are lower than the market.
“A bird is better in the hands, as they say. Money: 7,000 euros (for a one-year-old BMW) I will give you every day.
– Yes, in Moscow I can sell it five times more expensive!
– We still have to get to Russia. If they confiscate you you will get nothing at all.
This is the situation. Apparently, in the coming months there will not be a single car with a Russian license plate left in the EU. For now, they promised not to touch vehicles dedicated to passenger transportation. But bus ticket prices have already doubled.
