Poland’s Interior Minister, Mariusz Kaminski, announced this Saturday that Any vehicle with a Russian license plate will be prohibited from entering the country’s territory. from midnight Saturday to Sunday.
Kaminski traveled to Terespol, on the border with Belarus, where a press conference was held in which he explained the measure that is based on the recommendations published on September 8 by the European Commission to prohibit the entry of cars registered in Russia in the European Union.
“Russian trucks were already prohibited from entering. With this we close this question. “No Russian cars enter Poland.”, he indicated. “It applies to all cars, both commercial and private, regardless of who owns the car, a citizen of Russia or another country. The rule is that no car registered in Russia has the right to enter Poland,” he explained.
“It is part of the sanctions imposed on Russia and its citizens in connection with the brutal war in Ukraine. The Russian state today poses a threat to international security,” declared Kaminski.
Kaminski said the decision was made following the publication on September 8 of the European Commission’s guidelines to ban Russian-registered cars from entering the EU, PAP reported.
Other countries like Latvia, Finland, Estonia and Lithuania have also adopted similar measures to prohibit the entry of cars registered in Russia. Poland thus became the last EU country bordering Russia to block the entry of Russian vehicles.
On September 8, the European Commission published recommendations on the procedure for applying sanctions, according to which the customs of the EU Member States have the right not to allow the entry into the European Union of goods from Russia whose import is prohibited, including automobiles, as well as the personal effects of Russians. A few days later, clarifications were published, according to which the customs authorities should pay particular attention to cars.
Poland shares a 232-kilometer border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea, as well as a nearly 400-kilometer border with Belarus, one of Moscow’s main allies.
In July, Russian trucks were banned from entering Poland following another sanctions package approved by the European Commission. In response, Russia banned Polish truckswhich was quickly followed by a similar ban on trucks from all EU countries, the United Kingdom, Norway and Ukraine.
EU countries have tightened and increased trade sanctions on Russia following its full invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, building on restrictions imposed after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
Besides, Poland is a major hub for transporting allied weapons to Ukraine. In mid-March, Polish authorities announced that they had dismantled a Russian spy network that was planning acts of sabotage and monitoring railway routes to Ukraine.
Furthermore, as reported by the Polish state television channel DVTPrime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki declared on Friday that his Government plans build a wall on the border of Poland with Kaliningrad. There is currently a wire fence along the 232 kilometers of separation and the government began construction of an electronic barrier consisting of cameras and sensors earlier this year.
“First we will build the system that will allow us to electronically secure the border, but later we will create a physical barrier… along the entire border with Królewiec Oblast, so that residents can feel safer,” Morawiecki told Radio Olsztynusing the updated official Polish name for the Russian exclave that was adopted earlier this year.
With information from EuropaPress, Reuters and Bloomberg
Source-www.infobae.com