Pskov customs officers prevented a collection of minerals from leaving Russia

Nineteen minerals a German resident tried to smuggle to Europe through the Burachki checkpoint on the Russian-Latvian border.

At the customs post of the Burachki IACP, the passenger car of a Russian citizen residing in Germany was sent for scanning with the help of an inspection and search complex. During the subsequent inspection of the luggage, Pskov customs officers found minerals of various colors, shapes and weights in four boxes

– The man did not declare the contents of the boxes and did not present authorization documents from the Ministry of Culture and Rosprirodnadzor to export the collection from Russia. He explained that such minerals are generally available in the Urals and “lie underfoot,” said Denis Partomenko, head of the Burachki customs checkpoint

Expertise has established that the transported minerals of natural, earth origin – calcite, quartz, datolite, galena – belong to cultural values and are of interest for biology, mineralogy, meteoritics regardless of the time of their origin. This collection of minerals cannot be exported outside the Russian Federation

The collection has been seized. Two cases on administrative offenses under part 1 of article 16.2 (failure to declare goods subject to customs declaration in the prescribed form) and under article 16.3 of the Administrative Offenses Code of the Russian Federation (failure to comply with prohibitions and (or) restrictions on the export of goods from the customs territory of the EAEU or from the Russian Federation) were initiated against the man.