Kalinin spoke about Russia's plans to whitewash imports of transit goods

New measures will be introduced in Russia to whitewash imports and combat gray schemes at the border. Alexander Kalinin, President of Opora Russia, told Izvestia on June 4 at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF-2026).

According to him, the system of confirming the import of goods will close loopholes for false transit and smuggling, but at the same time create additional costs for small businesses.

"But without making this payment, the goods will not enter Russia. This is due to the fact that there are no gray schemes, false transit through our border, and smuggling. But this is also an additional financial cost, primarily for small businesses," Kalinin said.

Since June 1, the Russian Federation has already started operating a system for confirming the import of goods through Kazakhstan to Belarus. Now, for goods coming from the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and the Eurasian Economic Union, the importer needs to get a QR code at the border for the truck. For small businesses, according to Kalinin, the innovation is also related to the security payment of value added tax (VAT). Such money should appear in the entrepreneur's personal account after 21 days, without making a payment, the product will not be able to enter Russia.

The head of Opora Russia noted that businessmen had expressed serious concerns about the new rules in advance, sending their comments to the government office. The Federal Tax Service (FTS) also conducted test purchases to verify the operation of the system in practice. Some of the claims, according to Kalinin, were eliminated. As a result, the mandatory security payment was postponed to July 1, and in the direction through Belarus — approximately on October 1. This should give businesses and the government time to test the mechanism.

At the same time, the expert emphasized, even after the improvements, the system will still require entrepreneurs to divert money from circulation for more than 20 days. This can become a significant burden for small businesses, despite the stated goal of making imports more transparent and removing illegal schemes.

Control system: Russia called for expanding the risk management system in the customs regulation of the EAEU

How will this affect business and the speed of cargo passage?

On April 30, Izvestia reviewed the documents of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), which asked the Federal Tax Service to clarify how the new system for confirming the expectation of delivery of goods (SPOT) would work. It will be launched on June 1, 2026 and will affect companies that import goods by road from the EAEU countries. The essence of the innovation is that businesses will have to prepare a document on future delivery in advance, make a security payment and transfer data through a digital service. In fact, we are talking about an additional stage of control even before crossing the border.