How many Russians entered Europe by car? Infographics

The Baltic countries have stopped allowing cars with Russian license plates, Finland is preparing for such a step, and in Germany, seizures of Russian cars have been going on since the summer. How many Russians previously entered Europe by car and through which countries - in the RBC material

In the first half of 2023, Russians traveled to European countries by car 579.1 thousand times, according to open FSB data on the number of trips abroad by Russian citizens, which RBC reviewed. Slightly more than half (52.8%) of border crossings by car are trips to Finland. Another 18.6% goes to Estonia, and 11.7% goes to Poland. Other countries that received Russians in cars included Lithuania (8.4%), Latvia (5%) and Norway (3.4%). The latter is not part of the European Union, but has a land border with RUSSIA.

Finland will soon announce a ban on the entry of passenger cars registered in Russia, the Finnish TV channel Yle reported on September 15. If the information about Helsinki joining the ban is confirmed (and excluding possible exceptions to the ban), 85% of road traffic to Europe from Russia will be blocked at the initiative of European countries.

At the beginning of September, the European Commission published a clarification, from which it followed that entry into the EU countries in passenger cars registered in Russia is regarded as prohibited import . Initially, it was also about other goods from Appendix XXI to Art. 3i of Sanctions Regulation No. 833/2014 - in particular, smartphones, laptops, precious stones, cosmetics, etc. But then the European Commission further clarified that the majority of purely personal items will continue to be freely transported by Russians.

Against this backdrop, EU countries began to make decisions to ban the entry of cars with Russian license plates - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stopped allowing such cars. Finland said that cars registered in Russia can still cross the country's border, but its competent authorities are still assessing recommendations from Brussels.

Read PIONERPRODUKT .by How not to make a mistake in the main thing: why owners and CEOs are not suitable for each other Secured creditor: what will happen if you lose this status What taxes will you have to pay if you open a business in Kazakhstan Is it worth buying real estate in Kazakhstan : prices , profitability , tricks

Russia shares land borders with five EU member countries: Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Lithuania and Poland. Norway is not part of the EU, so the country may not be guided by the clarifications of the European Commission. However, Norway has consistently acceded to all EU sanctions packages and, in particular, codified in its legislation a ban on the import of goods under Annex XXI, including cars. Poland has not yet commented on this ban.

Most often, Russians traveled to Finland by car. The number of trips to the country reached its peak in the third quarter of 2022, when Russians entered the country 428.1 thousand times. Norway has the smallest number of entries: the maximum number of people who crossed the state border during the quarter was 11.1 thousand people.

According to the FSB methodology, if the same foreign/Russian citizen traveled outside his country more than once during the reporting period, then in the FSB data he is taken into account as many times as he crossed the state border in one direction.