Russia may increase the number of border security checkpoints for transporting roundwood from Belarus

Moscow sees no reason not to increase the number of checkpoints equipped for roundwood export from Belarus across the Russian territory; it only requires the corresponding infrastructure. This was announced by Alexey Overchuk, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation, at the meeting of the High-Level Group of the Union State (Russia and Belarus) Council of Ministers, as reported by TASS.

The restrictions on exporting softwood and fine roundwood from Russia came into force on January 1, 2022 and de facto prohibited taking it out of the country. The Deputy Prime Minister explained that this measure created certain problems with timber transportation from Belarus across the Russian territory for export purposes. However, he reminded that a technical solution has been developed for this problem, making it possible to monitor truck shipments of Belarus timber.

The Deputy Prime Minister specified that the most important thing for Moscow was “making sure this was Belorussian, not Russian timber”. “This is the problem we are solving. We are preserving our own forests while not preventing Belarus from selling its own timber,” he concluded.