{"id":582853,"date":"2026-09-29T10:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T07:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=582853"},"modified":"2026-09-29T11:29:38","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T08:29:38","slug":"belarus-used-to-reduce-budget-payments-on-shipments-of-sanctioned-goods-to-russia-bic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/belarus-used-to-reduce-budget-payments-on-shipments-of-sanctioned-goods-to-russia-bic","title":{"rendered":"Belarus Used to Reduce Budget Payments on Shipments of Sanctioned Goods to Russia \u2014 BIC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Belarusian Investigative Center<\/a> has described Belarus\u2019s less obvious role in shipments of sanctioned goods to Russia. As a result, the country is a \u201cloophole\u201d not only in European sanctions but also in Russia\u2019s budget revenues.<\/p>\n

A logistics specialist told BIC journalists that one potential benefit for Russian importers of routing sanctioned goods through Belarus is the optimization of customs payments.<\/p>\n

Before being shipped to Russia, sanctioned goods are usually resold several times between different companies. The chain may involve several companies from different countries, each of which has to add a markup. If goods are shipped directly to Russia, Russian customs authorities can see the entire chain, which affects the declared value of the goods and the amount of duties.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is why it is easier to take a detour through Belarus, reduce the declared price to the minimum, and then sell the goods in Russia,\u201d the BIC source explained.<\/p>\n

The Belarusian Investigative Center cites findings from its investigations as an example. In early 2024, for instance, the company Brandshandel supplied Finnish watches to Russia at a price of about $13 per unit. However, investigators found that the wholesale price of the same watches shipped from Turkey to Turkmenistan was nearly $270. According to BIC, Brandshandel is linked to Viktar Sheiman<\/strong>. Since early 2024, goods worth more than $400,000 have passed through the company on their way to Russia.<\/p>\n

The second benefit of shipments through Belarus is related to certification. Many goods require a certificate of origin. Russia generally does not accept certificates of origin along such supply chains because the consignor and consignee listed on them do not match. As a result, higher duties also have to be paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Belarus, the certificate can be reissued through the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, allowing them to avoid additional charges,\u201d<\/em> the BIC source said.<\/p>\n

The use of these schemes declined in mid-2024, when the transit of a number of goods from the EU through Belarus was banned, making \u201cfalse transit\u201d more difficult. Under this arrangement, a company in Central Asia or the South Caucasus was listed as the consignee. However, the ban does not cover all sanctioned goods, and shipments through third countries remain possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Belarusian Investigative Center has described Belarus\u2019s less obvious role in shipments of sanctioned goods to Russia. As a result, the country is a \u201cloophole\u201d not only in European sanctions but also in Russia\u2019s budget revenues. A logistics specialist told BIC journalists that one potential benefit for Russian importers of routing sanctioned goods through Belarus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":532240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/6abb76f5db5bd.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Belarus Used to Reduce Budget Payments on Shipments of Sanctioned Goods to Russia \u2014 BIC"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338,143126],"tags":[143118,143122],"class_list":["post-582853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news","category-business","tag-belarus","tag-rossija"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=582853"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582853\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":582865,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582853\/revisions\/582865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}