Since January 1, 2022, Russia's new rules on the circulation of timber have officially come into force, and while the actual ban on the export of logs has been imposed, a digital information system to track the movement of raw materials has been activated. Although this move was intended to legalize the development of the timber industry, it at the same time created a number of problems for the transportation of timber from Belarus through the territory of Russia. （Since March of this year, Belarusian road transport companies have been allowed to transport Belarusian timber to Central Asian countries through the Russian-Kazakh border section
On December 22, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Ovchuk at a meeting of the high-level group of the Council of State Ministers of Russia and Belarus expressed his opinion on the issue of timber transit: it is necessary to increase the number of border crossing checkpoints for the export of timber from Belarus through the Russian Federation, this is not difficult, it is only necessary to increase the corresponding infrastructure, TASS reported.
As far as is known, there are already suitable technical solutions for tracking Belarusian timber transported by road, the system has been tested, Belarusian carriers actively use it, and so far there are very few complaints about it", Ovchuk said at a press conference after the end of the event of the Russian ** Coordination Center, which was held at the VDNH Russian Exhibition Forum in Moscow.
Our goal is to protect the forests of Russia without affecting the transport of their forest products by Belarusians. "If the system is officially promoted, it will be quite beneficial for the circulation of timber ** in the region.