They took the gift upon themselves: Russians bring strange gifts from abroad
Along with the increase in passenger traffic before the New Year holidays, the number of unusual incidents at customs is also growing. Suitcases of tourists returning from abroad increasingly contain souvenirs of an illegal nature inside. The import of such gifts can lead to serious problems at the border. The reasons that push citizens to violate the law are diverse and not always criminal in nature. The press service of the Federal Customs Service shared stories about hapless travelers and seized curiosities with Izvestia.
Surprise wine and plants without documents
In early December, at Barnaul airport, inspectors stopped a Russian woman who had flown in from Vietnam. During the search, a glass bottle with the inscription "Snake wine" was found in her luggage, inside there was a pickled reptile and the root of an unknown plant. The woman explained that she had bought an exotic drink at the Nha Trang market as a souvenir. The examination showed that the snake in the bottle is a monocle cobra protected by the CITES Convention. This international document prohibits or strictly regulates trade in rare species of animals and plants. Now the passenger is facing an administrative case and a fine, while the cobra itself, along with the liquid and container, was seized and, most likely, will be confiscated.
And in Krasnoyarsk, customs officers used X-rays to find more than 15 kg of seedlings in the luggage of two tourists who returned from Thailand. 212 sprouts of cacti and ornamental plants were neatly packed in two suitcases. The violators planned to plant some of the plants in the country, and brought some of them "as gifts for loved ones" and simply "did not know" about strict phytosanitary rules.
"The women were fined 1,000 rubles, and the illegal goods were seized and destroyed by specialists from the Rosselkhoznadzor Administration for the Krasnoyarsk Territory,— the FCS press service explained.
The press service of the Federal Customs Service warns:
The categories of goods that individuals move in circumvention of customs legislation do not change. As a rule, passengers try to illegally import items of clothing, accessories, jewelry, watches, and cash. The situation is the same in the New Year period.
Fake papers and a criminal case
If the first two stories can be attributed to ignorance or frivolity, then the third case is deliberate smuggling. In November, a 39-year-old passenger on a flight from Istanbul was detained at Kazan Airport. His suitcase contained a commercial shipment of 612 items — purses, purses and handbags. The examination revealed that they were "made of python, crocodile, monitor lizard, and asp snakes," and their total cost was estimated at two million rubles.
The man tried to legalize the cargo by presenting the CITES certificate to the customs officers. But during the inspection it was found that the document is fake, the FCS reported. A criminal case was opened against the detainee under the article on smuggling.
Crocodile Tears
Customs inspectors point out that Russians have a special weakness for exotic souvenirs made from rare reptiles, in particular crocodiles. At the end of October 2025, at Novokuznetsk airport, customs officers found a stuffed crocodile in the travel bag of a Russian woman who had flown in from Vietnam.
"The derivative weighing 528 g and 73 cm long was detected by X—ray," the service said in a press release. As the passenger explained, she bought it "as a souvenir for a home collection," unaware of the need for special documents.
A similar incident occurred two months earlier in Khabarovsk. There, inspectors used X-rays to find a crocodile's head in a suitcase of a tourist from Vietnam. The man also stated that he was carrying a trophy "for a personal collection" and did not know about the declaration rules.
In both cases, the examination gave a disappointing result for travelers: a stuffed Siamese crocodile was seized in Kuzbass, and a crested crocodile head was seized in Khabarovsk. Both species are protected by the CITES International Convention, and their derivatives are prohibited from free movement across borders without special permits.
The result for both collectors turned out to be the same: the initiation of administrative proceedings for non-compliance with prohibitions and restrictions and non-declaration of goods, which threatens with a fine and confiscation of handicrafts.
Egoza does not doze off
One of the most unusual finds of customs officers in the luggage of citizens was more than 40 kg of natural human hair worth 4.3 million rubles, seized in Volgograd from a foreigner from the UAE. And at Sheremetyevo airport, Egoza's service dog helped a passenger from Bangkok find "four red marmalades" weighing 22 grams containing tetrahydrocannabinol.
46 kg of popular Labuba toys were detained in Irkutsk, which they tried to import from China for resale. And in Pulkovo, a passenger who claimed to be carrying 107 live lobsters from the UAE "for his pool" eventually confessed that he had been fulfilling the restaurant's order.
Consequences of risk
Smuggling is deliberate actions directed against the foundations of economic security and public order of the state (qualified under Articles 200.1, 200.2, 226.1 and 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
"The objective side of the crime is the movement of goods and objects across the customs border of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in violation of established prohibitions and restrictions, and the methods can be very different: from hiding in hiding places to providing forged documents," explained lawyer Ekaterina Krasnova.
The legislator differentiates responsibility depending on the social danger of the objects and substances being moved. The state considers the smuggling of narcotic and psychotropic substances, weapons, explosives, cultural property, rare animals and plants, alcohol and tobacco to be the most dangerous.
The potential benefits of illegally moving goods across the border are disproportionate to the risk of losing freedom for many years, Krasnova believes.
— It is extremely important for citizens and entrepreneurs to remember that ignorance of prohibitions and restrictions, as shown by the cases of plants or souvenirs of rare animals, does not absolve from responsibility, but only aggravates the situation, making it impossible to refer to the lack of intent.
How to avoid problems
Customs officers remind you that before traveling, it is important to study the customs rules of both Russia and the country of export of goods. Special restrictions are most often applied:
- Endangered flora and fauna (everything that falls under the CITES Convention): products made of reptilian skin and bone, ivory, turtle shell, live plants, stuffed animals.
- Plants, seeds, and planting materials. A special phytosanitary certificate is almost always required for their import.
- Animal products (meat, milk, honey, etc.) that can carry dangerous diseases.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
