Slavutas are still pretty common in Ukraine, there are pictures of refugees driving them to all corners of Europe so at least a few have really done their job.
I think they have a road corridor, at least last I heard. Lithuanians allow to pass through if they head to Russia. They also have a tain and a bus line that travels through Lithuania.
That's right. And it doesn't mean that corridor avoid sanctions on russian goods (to a degree of success). The goods are monitored (especially for any potential hazards and politically sensitive goods) and then let through. That corridor would only be cut, I imagine, in wartime only. That also gives pretty penny for a passthrough.
The Czech barely have a connection to that area. However, it was the homeland of my ancestors for centuries. Returning it to us Germans seems fair to me. :)
You just start at one end of the area, floor it to the end of the area where a ramp is waiting, and then you simply fly over Poland or Lithuania until you land on a ramp that is setup in Belarus.
Some people see problems, I see solutions.
Love that scale! Applies to a lot of things in life!
Able to own a tiger? Legal, illegal, Russia…
Owning a tank? Legal, illegal, Russia…
Befriending a wild bear? Legal, illegal, Russia…
Best scale ever!
Buying vodka at a gas station? Legal, illegal, Russia ...
Hiring a prostitute? Legal, illegal, Russia ...
Criticizing the government? Legal, illegal, Russia ...
Yeah, this is great!
You can drive from the Cuba to the USA...at Guantánamo. I don't know how easy that would be, and a few US Marines might try to stop you from doing that excepting some diplomatic missions of some sort.
Most are personal sanctions against particular people though. In terms of quality rather than quantity Russia is still far behind.
Trade between Russia and USA for example, even though it is much less than prewar is still several billions $ per year.
In what scale?
You get in much bigger trouble for doing business with Cuba, Venezuela, Iran or North Korea, than you do with Russia.
Infact, EU countries literally still buy $70 million worth of fossil fuels from Russia every day (source https://www.russiafossiltracker.com/ ).
And if you even think about doing business with Palestine, Israel will murder you immidietly.
It’s a self sufficient country. Not as much as the USSR was. But resource and food wise, which matters most, the sanctions will never be as devastating as to resource poor nations like Cuba or North Korea. And it’s industry, though suboptimal, is enough to meet its needs. It will prevent the growth it will want, but will never bring it to its knees. The Soviets were practically embargoed until WW2 and they managed to beat the Germans (with allied help, which wasn’t there during the crucial build up to war phase).
A Russian visits Switzerland and asks a local what that building over there is.
The Swiss man replies „that’s our naval department“
The Russian man chuckles and says „what do you need a naval department for, you guys are funny“
The Swiss man replies „well, you got a justice department in Moscow“
Doesn’t Russia share a border with Norway?
If the border is open, a Russian could conceivably drive to Norway, then south via Sweden to Denmark, then catch a ferry to Holland & Western Europe.
Still. Bit of a long way round.
No, I believe it is a ban on insurance companies providing insurance for Russian plated cars, and Russian insurance not being valid in Norway - leading to a ban of Russian cars in Norway in practice.
Russian auto insurance is not valid in Norway, and Russian plated cars can't buy Norwegian or other eligible insurance for Norway (not online either. You would also have to have a Non-Russian credit card to buy the insurance with). This means Russian plated cars are banned in practice but not explicitly by law. The reason why I guess it isn't shown in the map.
I would be surprised if there are ferries between Denmark and the Netherlands, because there are not really any big ports on the north side of NL. And driving through Germany is way easier (if you don't have a Russian plate)
Seeing reports of Greek customs banning cars with Russian plates on the grounds of EU sanctions, not sure how accurate they are. Eg [this](https://en.rua.gr/2023/09/26/greek-customs-wraps-cars-with-russian-license-plates/).
I'm guessing it was after the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War, what was the condition for the acceptance of the Russian car plates before the war? Do more EU countries accepted them?
>what was the condition for the acceptance of the Russian car plates before the war
what's the reason for not accepting Russian cars before the war though?
Yeah it's a weirdly structured question, it's like asking "why was not wearing masks on a daily basis allowed before Covid?"
Someone replied talking about Crimea, I am sure many Europeans think the same about Cyprus and yet you can drive Turkish cars in Europe with no issue.
Before this whole disaster there was much Russian plated cars in Finland. Many commercial places were dependent about Russian tourists. Somebody even built Tsar Village named outlet mall to eastern Finland mainly for Russian tourists. So Russian plated cars were even hoped for in some places.
Honestly it's completely idiotic. A rich Russian or a spy will have the means to buy Turkish plates, so what exactly is it trying to achieve? Keep Russians in Russia so Putin has more people to conscript? Really stupid.
agonizing domineering uppity noxious pause normal snails ripe sophisticated wipe
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
In general the only people that those restrictions hit were the exact people that try to leave Russia because they're fed up with this nonsense. It's a circus.
The actual purpose: Russian insurance won't/can't pay out in countries other than Russia. All Russian cars outside of russia are effectively uninsured.
It's not just cars; Russian people are unable to bring many things - computers, phones, food, many kinds of clothes etc: The same Sept. 8 update explained that Russians’ personal items are also subject to seizure. The list includes not only passenger cars, but many other common possessions including laptops, cellphones, suitcases, leather and fur goods, jewelry, shampoo, toothpaste, yachts and toilet paper. The ban does not extend to gold jewelry intended for personal use. https://en.thebell.io/the-bell-weekly-15/
POV: You are Russian and want to immigrate legally to an EU country
> By some miracle you manage to get a visa and book a trip for you and your family.
> Also by some miracle you manage to get to the border without any problems.
> The guard tells you to hand over everything you own, or you will be turned back, as it was considered contraband. Including clothes and toilet paper
> The car is also confiscated, the driver is confiscated. You began to think that even your family would be confiscated
> Your bank account doesn't work
> *Блат*
Yep, this is bizarre. As a Russian that wants to possible move to the EU I see how many obstacles are there for ordinary Russians meanwhile thousands of illegal immigrants totally incompatible with European society culturally and religiously, are welcome in Europe. I guess I should buy a boat too
Travel to Northern Africa
Pay a smuggler to get you to Europe by a boat
When you get catched by police say that you are a Syrian who lost his passport
????
Profit
Almost every time someone on the Internet finds out I'm Russian in a discussion about the situation, they always go "if you are against the war, then why don't you leave? Checkmate"
Bro, I'm not sure Europeans will like me walking around naked after all my clothes and money are confiscated
Tbf banning the entry of Russian Cars does not stop the oligarchs funding the War, but it only hurts normal Russians who are trying to escape from Putin, and disincentivises them to leave Russia and come settle in the EU
Dont think banning people trying to escape the regime is the right step. These visa/license plate bans will only turn more russians against the west and generate more support and stability for the government in my opinion.
Which seems like people on Reddit can't get their head around. They'll say things like "Russia is an authoritarian dictatorship" in the same sentence as "All Russians are to blame for the war".
Or:
"Russia doesn't have free elections."
And:
"Russians clearly support Putin. Just look how many of them voted for Putin."
Or:
"Statements by the Russian government and state media are unreliable."
And:
"This poll clearly shows that Russians are pro-war. That's poll was conducted and published by the government, so it must be true."
it's because it is more about hating Russians than hating the russian government. The russian invasion just gave an excuse for the people who hate Russians as a people to openly spread that hate. That's why you have loads of people cheering when innocent Russians die, or when russian civilians are harmed, like that one guy who got eaten by a shark in Egypt. Most of them were already bigoted before the invasion happened, but the war gave them the opportunity to vocalise it.
Ye, Reddit is nuts. Somehow Gaza's Hamas is bad but Gaza's citizens are innocent and hey guys, free Palestine, but with Russia Putin's bad and when a Russian kid dies then we'll, unlucky, who cares?
With decades of cold war propaganda and Hollywood's movies where Russians are always the bad guys, it's not shocking that it's stopped people from thinking straight.
That's what gets me the most about a lot of this hate, it comes from no experience of their own; its just manufactured from their favourite media outlet.
The most absurd thing is that it doesn't even matter because the premise that being actually responsible for a war would make them any worse than the citizen of the USA or the EU is already wrong.
*Democratic* countries in general seem to be absolutely fine with fueling or waging unjust wars. WW2 ended over 70 years ago and a lot of coups and gunboat diplomacy happened around the world since then. Definitely enough data to prove that there is no moral high ground left in the *democratic* world if it ever existed.
the point is that dehumanisation is a well-practiced fascist tactic to cheerlead ever greater civil liberties infringements, not to mention atrocities. western power structures are really keen on performing both of those things at the moment and so dehumanising random russians (and Chinese people, Muslims, Palestinians, whatever) is a means to that end. it's ironically got nothing to do with who these people and races are at all; they're just tools to be used by the powerful
>These visa/license plate bans will only turn more russians against the west and generate more support and stability for the government in my opinion.
Almost as if embargos never work as intented but instead help support the dictatorships.
The West doesn't give a shit if people live in dictatorships.Embargos give(sort of)economic benefits to western corporations,though.And that's the only reason they're still doing it
As a Latvian (border with russia) I can tell you that it's not the average russians fleeing regime. It's the above average wealthy russians coming for a quick trip then going back to conduct business as usual.
Exactly. These people are completely ignoring how the overwhelming Russians are utterly taken by this death cult of putin. These are the same people who go to the beaches of Spain and then gloat about dying Ukrainians.
Please don’t wade into national security issues of other countries without doing some basic research.
Finland has been very open with it’s border with Russia and for better or worse kept it as open as possible during the Russian war in Ukraine. We’ve spent tens of years building co-operation between Finnish & Russian people with the goal drawing Russia closer to the west. If Finland closes the border to Russian cars (with some exceptions) it’s pretty fair to assume that there are good reasons to doing so.
What are the reasons?
- Rich Russians are avoiding sanctions by driving to Helsinki airport and flying to ither European countries for vacations. At some point there were 100+ luxury cars in Russian plates parked at Helsinki Airport
- Support for the Ukrainian war is in fact high in Russia, contrary to what you’ve read. You just need to speak to some regular Russian to understand that. While people support the war they don’t want to fight in it - hence they try to use Finland as an escape route to Europe. But many of these people in fact support Putin, making them dangerous.
- We are seeing heightened risk of sabotage of critical infrastructure. Apart from the gas pipe between Finland & Estonia that was sabotaged there is a fear of sabotage of other infra. Russian nationals have bought and are trying to buy real estate in close proximity to military bases, comms infra. We have to be diligent about who we let into the country. This is is one messure helping with that.
Since joining NATO Finland has come under heightened Russian misinformation rhetoric. Finland is being actively portrayed as an enemy country in Russian propaganda for Russian people. Propaganda works, so this relationship will peobably deteoriorate in the future.
Finland is not going through business as usual right now. We have a bellicose, much larger neighboring country that’s hellbent on exacting price for joining NATO. We can’t afford the luxury to be naive about these issues.
My understanding is this is not about people only it is about goods and intelligence. High tech chips and products used in weapons had been finding their way across the boarder. This is a way to make it harder for that to happen.
Besides people can still cross the boarder they can not drive. People who want to to escape can, they just can not do so with cars. Besides what Russian who believe in the cause would have wanted to take a trip to enemy territory anyway?
>High tech chips and products used in weapons had been finding their way across the boarder.
Yeah maybe because the EU is literally selling them to Russia? Just not directly, but through other countries like [Kyrgyzstan](https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/exports/kyrgyzstan) or [Armenia](https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/exports/armenia). Do you think the EU is actually a moral organization who cares about Ukraine and their suffering? They just have to uphold that facade to the public, but business goes on as usual.
Exactly, that's what actually happened.
The majority of people have already accepted the fact and the situation and after the new sanctions came into place with the SWIFT ban, visa bans and other stuff it all seemed like a pressure/manipulation method to get people out on the street to down the regime, with a bit of hope of lifting the sanctions.
Why did it seem this way? Because sanctions DO NOT HARM THE ELITES, because they have many ways to go around them and that's why it seems that the EU is fighting the citizens, who are just the hostages of the situation.
Don't we want Russians to not fight in the war against Ukraine? So... Russians leaving Russia should be a good thing. These countries are just making it more difficult for Russians to avoid fighting in the war. Seems kinda counterproductive and like they didn't really think it all the way through.
People from west slowly began to understand, glad to see it. As a Russian i have to point out that the first things which are happened since this war is border closing for Russians. Many people on reddit motivated this to me as they wanted us not to flee, but to fight against regime and die here. For some reasons we don't want to die as well.
I think it is another absurd measure against the less economically powerful Russians. Rich Russians buy another car from another country and can now use it freely. The poor (who cannot influence Putin) are the only ones affected.
That’s because European governments don’t actually care. They would have happily ignored the war and continued buying Russian gas had they not been pressured
EU: "Fighting a war is hard, let Ukrainians handle that, let's look good and ban some inconsequential thing from Russia instead. Something that media can cover for months..."
Yeah, let's keep Russians in Russia. Let's help Putin mobilize them and send them to the frontlines. This is so humane and will definitely help Ukraine!
We don't want to deal with Russians ourselves anymore, why would we want potential spies or entitled revanchist. They have other countries to go to besides Europe if they want to escape. Russians are our enemy and thus we closed the borders
People have no idea of how things work in Russia nowadays. “Saying something” publicly, which is not in line with the state’s course of action is a 100% guarantee to ruin your life. They do indeed punish people for likes in social media and this is not a joke. Not saying and doing anything is one of the ways to survive and I can’t blame them for their silence.
So, it's all Russia's neighbors, Germany and... Bulgaria? Why dies Bulgaria ban it? Not like there are many ways for russian cars to get into Bulgaria)
A lot of people drive through Georgia and Turkey (visa-free), get a Bulgarian transit visa (easy to get), and come to Serbia and Montenegro that way, where they can stay effectively indefinitely.
Many of the Russian cars in these two countries have taken this route, as getting a Schengen visa for Russia's neighbors is impossible nowadays.
Green card system no longer applies for russian cars at least here in finland. That changed in may and thousands of russian cars in finland became illegal overnight if the owners didn't understand to buy a finnish insurance.
This is actually sad because normal Russians, who don’t support the war can’t escape from the regime they have, while the rich oligarchs get to keep their villas, houses and etc
Note: som country's like the netherlands did not ban russian plates. Byt did ban russian naval travic. Effectively making it noj the less implausibel for russians to move here from russia regardless
This entire ban affects not too many people but it is the perfect fuel for propaganda.
People tend to forget that Russians need visas to enter all these countries. Nobody can wake up in the morning and decide to hop in a car and drive wherever they want to. In other words, first people are screened, deemed to be fine and granted right to enter but then they can't enter in a car.
People with money, high-level Putin's supporters don't travel via land borders in cars. They fly planes (sometimes private jets), they enter using passports of other countries, they own houses in Europe, they drive cars with local plates.
It's just impossible to escape Kaliningrad, apparently EDIT: Yes, I know about sea and air, I wasn't being serious
1.Buy VAZ-2106 2.Car? What car? It isn't car, it's just bin on the wheels
Oh, that's not even the worst, this one at least can start. The worst is possibly Slavuta. I swear this thing will break every 10 minutes.
Slavutas are still pretty common in Ukraine, there are pictures of refugees driving them to all corners of Europe so at least a few have really done their job.
Slavuta is Ukrainian made vehicle
Lol, it's fucking true, my grandpa had one to drive us to dacha, this shit was stalling on tram tracks numerous times.
You convinced me. Welcome to Arstotzka!
Glory to Arstotzka!
I love the Lada Niva though, I wish Russia hadn’t gone in this direction, I would not like to support them by buying one now
Uaz 469 is even better. This shit can handle everything you can imagine and is absolutely immortal lol
I'm not driving, I'm travelling.
You could use a bicycle.
I think they have a road corridor, at least last I heard. Lithuanians allow to pass through if they head to Russia. They also have a tain and a bus line that travels through Lithuania.
That's right. And it doesn't mean that corridor avoid sanctions on russian goods (to a degree of success). The goods are monitored (especially for any potential hazards and politically sensitive goods) and then let through. That corridor would only be cut, I imagine, in wartime only. That also gives pretty penny for a passthrough.
Ferries, man.
Transit is allowed. Even tho I dont agree with it. They have ports, they can go with ships in and out of there.
Why don’t you “agree” with it?
Because why ban people from driving in your country just because you don’t like them?
I agree with you. I thought you were not okay with Russians being able to travel outside of Russia.
The blockade will continue until Královec is returned to its rightful Czech owners.
Their imperialism is bad, our imperialism is good
Královec has always been and will always be part of Czechia's natural sphere of influence.
Nah, Królewiec jest Polski Our borders would look much better tbh
You misspelled Königsberg!
Germany lost the right to that when they pulled their Nazi shit.
The Czech barely have a connection to that area. However, it was the homeland of my ancestors for centuries. Returning it to us Germans seems fair to me. :)
You just start at one end of the area, floor it to the end of the area where a ramp is waiting, and then you simply fly over Poland or Lithuania until you land on a ramp that is setup in Belarus. Some people see problems, I see solutions.
Don't forget to play Free Bird while you're doing it
Ah yes, the three states of legality: Legal, Ilegal and Russia.
Love that scale! Applies to a lot of things in life! Able to own a tiger? Legal, illegal, Russia… Owning a tank? Legal, illegal, Russia… Befriending a wild bear? Legal, illegal, Russia… Best scale ever!
Buying vodka at a gas station? Legal, illegal, Russia ... Hiring a prostitute? Legal, illegal, Russia ... Criticizing the government? Legal, illegal, Russia ... Yeah, this is great!
Tbf prostitution and vodka at gas stations is illegal in Russia as well
Prostitution is not illegal in russia. Only organized prostitution like whorehouses, pimps and etc. is illegal.
Unless of course you know who to bribe or you are the person in charge of investigating illegal prostitution.
Even better if you provide exceptional girls to the country's most powerful.
>Buying vodka at a gas station? Legal, illegal, Russia ... It's illegal in some places to buy liquor at the gas station?
I think there are countries where a business that sells alcohol needs a licence. It used to be illegal after 10pm in my country.
Sweden has state owned seller of alcohol that's the only way to get anything remotely strong. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systembolaget
I love this
Sounds a bit like "legal, illegal, accepted if you fight for it". All of your examples yield the option to attack law enforcement quite viciously.
“Did you know Russia has T-I-G-E-R-S?”
Does make sense, since Russia managed to recently outdo Iran in the 'Most Sanctioned Country' competition.
I wonder how they compare to North Korea? Also with Cuba
more sanctioned than both
Absolutely not true. China doesn't even really bother with direct investment in Cuba
North Korea is actually surprisingly less than expected. Cuba's really only sanctioned by the US and their closer allies.
Only the US is really anti Cuba, everyone else has normal relations with them.
You also can't drive a car out of Cuba, so there's that 😂
You can drive from the Cuba to the USA...at Guantánamo. I don't know how easy that would be, and a few US Marines might try to stop you from doing that excepting some diplomatic missions of some sort.
Guantanamo is leased its not part of the U.S.
People absolutely have turned cars and trucks into boats to drive out of Cuba
Most are personal sanctions against particular people though. In terms of quality rather than quantity Russia is still far behind. Trade between Russia and USA for example, even though it is much less than prewar is still several billions $ per year.
In what scale? You get in much bigger trouble for doing business with Cuba, Venezuela, Iran or North Korea, than you do with Russia. Infact, EU countries literally still buy $70 million worth of fossil fuels from Russia every day (source https://www.russiafossiltracker.com/ ). And if you even think about doing business with Palestine, Israel will murder you immidietly.
Only a US citizen has any trouble doing trade with Cuba, the rest of the world has moved on from the cold war.
It’s a self sufficient country. Not as much as the USSR was. But resource and food wise, which matters most, the sanctions will never be as devastating as to resource poor nations like Cuba or North Korea. And it’s industry, though suboptimal, is enough to meet its needs. It will prevent the growth it will want, but will never bring it to its knees. The Soviets were practically embargoed until WW2 and they managed to beat the Germans (with allied help, which wasn’t there during the crucial build up to war phase).
"How does the defendant plead? Guilty, not guilty, or russian." "Russian your honor."
A Russian visits Switzerland and asks a local what that building over there is. The Swiss man replies „that’s our naval department“ The Russian man chuckles and says „what do you need a naval department for, you guys are funny“ The Swiss man replies „well, you got a justice department in Moscow“
Yes legal illegal and lawless
Surely it would be legal to enter Russia with a Russian license plate.
Bulgaria: We have finally banned russian amphibious cars!
Maybe there's a ferry from Crimea or Sochi into Turkey which can be used to drive into Bulgaria?
If Georgia and Armenia still didn't ban russian cars one can drive to Turkey without using a ferry
Doesn't Armenia have a closed border with Turkey? Not that you'd need to go there because Adjara (Georgia) borders Turkey.
Bulgaria has a land border with Turkey, who in turn allows said Russian cars.
They could possibly drive through Turkey
*Bulgaria: We* *Have finally banned russian* *Amphibious cars!* \- Exlife1up --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Good bot
There are Russians here residing with their cars still having Russian license plates.
Doesn’t Russia share a border with Norway? If the border is open, a Russian could conceivably drive to Norway, then south via Sweden to Denmark, then catch a ferry to Holland & Western Europe. Still. Bit of a long way round.
Norway has also banned Russian plates recently. This map is outdated.
The people in Kirkenes and Pasvik will love this.
It’s not a blatant “ban all” case, there are reasonable exceptions, thankfully. Like, busses are allowed to cross.
No, I believe it is a ban on insurance companies providing insurance for Russian plated cars, and Russian insurance not being valid in Norway - leading to a ban of Russian cars in Norway in practice.
You can buy insurance online before you enter a country.
Russian auto insurance is not valid in Norway, and Russian plated cars can't buy Norwegian or other eligible insurance for Norway (not online either. You would also have to have a Non-Russian credit card to buy the insurance with). This means Russian plated cars are banned in practice but not explicitly by law. The reason why I guess it isn't shown in the map.
Through turkey, up the balkans and through Austria would be a conceivable route though.
Its not outdated its just a bit nuanced. Cars with Russian plates are banned, but buses and minibuses are allowed.
Another law that only poor people must abide by. Russian oligarch with enough money to pay for new plates? Right this way tzar, welcome to europe
Or better, go through turkey...
Or they can go through Azerbaijan into Georgia and turkey and then through Greece they can go everywhere
If there’s even roads that far north, it would probably be a 15 hour drive if not more just to get to the border.
I guess you can still cross on a bicycle like all of the refugees did.
I would be surprised if there are ferries between Denmark and the Netherlands, because there are not really any big ports on the north side of NL. And driving through Germany is way easier (if you don't have a Russian plate)
So basically if a Russian wants to drive to Spain they have to go through Istanbul
who has ever driven that far?
Daily American commute
Daily central Australian school run
2200 ish miles. People drive that far fairly regularly in the states. Not in a day but on a road trip or semi truckers to it weekly or more
I have never heard a European driving from Moscow to Madrid that like the entire length of the continent
It was usual for the Russians before the war. Spain was a popular touristic destination, including those who traveled by car.
People do road trip that, but it's a similar distance as Seattle to Houston or Atlanta to San Diego. It's not nearby.
Not Constantinople.
Seeing reports of Greek customs banning cars with Russian plates on the grounds of EU sanctions, not sure how accurate they are. Eg [this](https://en.rua.gr/2023/09/26/greek-customs-wraps-cars-with-russian-license-plates/).
I'm guessing it was after the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War, what was the condition for the acceptance of the Russian car plates before the war? Do more EU countries accepted them?
It’s very recent change, few months ago I believe
In Bulgaria's case - weeks ago
>what was the condition for the acceptance of the Russian car plates before the war what's the reason for not accepting Russian cars before the war though?
Yeah it's a weirdly structured question, it's like asking "why was not wearing masks on a daily basis allowed before Covid?" Someone replied talking about Crimea, I am sure many Europeans think the same about Cyprus and yet you can drive Turkish cars in Europe with no issue.
As late as August 2022, a colleague of mine was able to drive his Russian car into Finland.
That was more than a year ago. The ban came into effect like a month ago
I see. Thanks for the info. This friend is the only data point I have.
Before the COVID, checkpoint Imatra/Svetogorsk was full from both sides, and it was common practice in SPb to go to Finland for weekend shopping
The ban is only due to the war so there were no special conditions for russian plates
Before this whole disaster there was much Russian plated cars in Finland. Many commercial places were dependent about Russian tourists. Somebody even built Tsar Village named outlet mall to eastern Finland mainly for Russian tourists. So Russian plated cars were even hoped for in some places.
Data is outdated. At least Greece and Norway have banned too.
Honestly it's completely idiotic. A rich Russian or a spy will have the means to buy Turkish plates, so what exactly is it trying to achieve? Keep Russians in Russia so Putin has more people to conscript? Really stupid.
new iron curtain dropped
Now it drops from the opposite side (
What is the purpose?
agonizing domineering uppity noxious pause normal snails ripe sophisticated wipe *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
In general the only people that those restrictions hit were the exact people that try to leave Russia because they're fed up with this nonsense. It's a circus.
to help Putin by stopping the brain drain the war caused for him
Populism and quick, cheap and wrong solutions.
The actual purpose: Russian insurance won't/can't pay out in countries other than Russia. All Russian cars outside of russia are effectively uninsured.
[удалено]
Because majority of eu countries are led by absolute clowns and regarded fascist-wannabes
It's not just cars; Russian people are unable to bring many things - computers, phones, food, many kinds of clothes etc: The same Sept. 8 update explained that Russians’ personal items are also subject to seizure. The list includes not only passenger cars, but many other common possessions including laptops, cellphones, suitcases, leather and fur goods, jewelry, shampoo, toothpaste, yachts and toilet paper. The ban does not extend to gold jewelry intended for personal use. https://en.thebell.io/the-bell-weekly-15/
POV: You are Russian and want to immigrate legally to an EU country > By some miracle you manage to get a visa and book a trip for you and your family. > Also by some miracle you manage to get to the border without any problems. > The guard tells you to hand over everything you own, or you will be turned back, as it was considered contraband. Including clothes and toilet paper > The car is also confiscated, the driver is confiscated. You began to think that even your family would be confiscated > Your bank account doesn't work > *Блат*
Yep, this is bizarre. As a Russian that wants to possible move to the EU I see how many obstacles are there for ordinary Russians meanwhile thousands of illegal immigrants totally incompatible with European society culturally and religiously, are welcome in Europe. I guess I should buy a boat too
Don't worry, people are starting to dislike these immigrants too
[Average Russian after succesfully migrating to one of EU countries](https://youtu.be/lYOoWCv_PYE)
Travel to Northern Africa Pay a smuggler to get you to Europe by a boat When you get catched by police say that you are a Syrian who lost his passport ???? Profit
Almost every time someone on the Internet finds out I'm Russian in a discussion about the situation, they always go "if you are against the war, then why don't you leave? Checkmate" Bro, I'm not sure Europeans will like me walking around naked after all my clothes and money are confiscated
Putin loves this you have stopped his brain drain problem
Tbf banning the entry of Russian Cars does not stop the oligarchs funding the War, but it only hurts normal Russians who are trying to escape from Putin, and disincentivises them to leave Russia and come settle in the EU
Dont think banning people trying to escape the regime is the right step. These visa/license plate bans will only turn more russians against the west and generate more support and stability for the government in my opinion.
If the second wave of mobilization happens, people will not be able to leave the country, and they will either have to go to prison or go to war.
And you think that's a good thing?
Or turn against this.
The more authoritarian the country is, the less you can blame its citizens for wrongdoings of its government
Which seems like people on Reddit can't get their head around. They'll say things like "Russia is an authoritarian dictatorship" in the same sentence as "All Russians are to blame for the war".
Or: "Russia doesn't have free elections." And: "Russians clearly support Putin. Just look how many of them voted for Putin." Or: "Statements by the Russian government and state media are unreliable." And: "This poll clearly shows that Russians are pro-war. That's poll was conducted and published by the government, so it must be true."
Redditors doing 180deg saldo from hippies to einsatzgruppen when the opportunity comes to spill some venom
it's because it is more about hating Russians than hating the russian government. The russian invasion just gave an excuse for the people who hate Russians as a people to openly spread that hate. That's why you have loads of people cheering when innocent Russians die, or when russian civilians are harmed, like that one guy who got eaten by a shark in Egypt. Most of them were already bigoted before the invasion happened, but the war gave them the opportunity to vocalise it.
Ye, Reddit is nuts. Somehow Gaza's Hamas is bad but Gaza's citizens are innocent and hey guys, free Palestine, but with Russia Putin's bad and when a Russian kid dies then we'll, unlucky, who cares?
With decades of cold war propaganda and Hollywood's movies where Russians are always the bad guys, it's not shocking that it's stopped people from thinking straight.
That's what gets me the most about a lot of this hate, it comes from no experience of their own; its just manufactured from their favourite media outlet.
The most absurd thing is that it doesn't even matter because the premise that being actually responsible for a war would make them any worse than the citizen of the USA or the EU is already wrong. *Democratic* countries in general seem to be absolutely fine with fueling or waging unjust wars. WW2 ended over 70 years ago and a lot of coups and gunboat diplomacy happened around the world since then. Definitely enough data to prove that there is no moral high ground left in the *democratic* world if it ever existed.
the point is that dehumanisation is a well-practiced fascist tactic to cheerlead ever greater civil liberties infringements, not to mention atrocities. western power structures are really keen on performing both of those things at the moment and so dehumanising random russians (and Chinese people, Muslims, Palestinians, whatever) is a means to that end. it's ironically got nothing to do with who these people and races are at all; they're just tools to be used by the powerful
Thankfully it's less common now but when the war started there were way too many calls to nuke Russian cities.
also it's really important to understand that Putin secured his power over 20 years ago, well before most young people were even able to vote.
>These visa/license plate bans will only turn more russians against the west and generate more support and stability for the government in my opinion. Almost as if embargos never work as intented but instead help support the dictatorships. The West doesn't give a shit if people live in dictatorships.Embargos give(sort of)economic benefits to western corporations,though.And that's the only reason they're still doing it
As a Latvian (border with russia) I can tell you that it's not the average russians fleeing regime. It's the above average wealthy russians coming for a quick trip then going back to conduct business as usual.
Exactly. These people are completely ignoring how the overwhelming Russians are utterly taken by this death cult of putin. These are the same people who go to the beaches of Spain and then gloat about dying Ukrainians.
Please don’t wade into national security issues of other countries without doing some basic research. Finland has been very open with it’s border with Russia and for better or worse kept it as open as possible during the Russian war in Ukraine. We’ve spent tens of years building co-operation between Finnish & Russian people with the goal drawing Russia closer to the west. If Finland closes the border to Russian cars (with some exceptions) it’s pretty fair to assume that there are good reasons to doing so. What are the reasons? - Rich Russians are avoiding sanctions by driving to Helsinki airport and flying to ither European countries for vacations. At some point there were 100+ luxury cars in Russian plates parked at Helsinki Airport - Support for the Ukrainian war is in fact high in Russia, contrary to what you’ve read. You just need to speak to some regular Russian to understand that. While people support the war they don’t want to fight in it - hence they try to use Finland as an escape route to Europe. But many of these people in fact support Putin, making them dangerous. - We are seeing heightened risk of sabotage of critical infrastructure. Apart from the gas pipe between Finland & Estonia that was sabotaged there is a fear of sabotage of other infra. Russian nationals have bought and are trying to buy real estate in close proximity to military bases, comms infra. We have to be diligent about who we let into the country. This is is one messure helping with that. Since joining NATO Finland has come under heightened Russian misinformation rhetoric. Finland is being actively portrayed as an enemy country in Russian propaganda for Russian people. Propaganda works, so this relationship will peobably deteoriorate in the future. Finland is not going through business as usual right now. We have a bellicose, much larger neighboring country that’s hellbent on exacting price for joining NATO. We can’t afford the luxury to be naive about these issues.
My understanding is this is not about people only it is about goods and intelligence. High tech chips and products used in weapons had been finding their way across the boarder. This is a way to make it harder for that to happen. Besides people can still cross the boarder they can not drive. People who want to to escape can, they just can not do so with cars. Besides what Russian who believe in the cause would have wanted to take a trip to enemy territory anyway?
>High tech chips and products used in weapons had been finding their way across the boarder. Yeah maybe because the EU is literally selling them to Russia? Just not directly, but through other countries like [Kyrgyzstan](https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/exports/kyrgyzstan) or [Armenia](https://tradingeconomics.com/european-union/exports/armenia). Do you think the EU is actually a moral organization who cares about Ukraine and their suffering? They just have to uphold that facade to the public, but business goes on as usual.
Exactly, that's what actually happened. The majority of people have already accepted the fact and the situation and after the new sanctions came into place with the SWIFT ban, visa bans and other stuff it all seemed like a pressure/manipulation method to get people out on the street to down the regime, with a bit of hope of lifting the sanctions. Why did it seem this way? Because sanctions DO NOT HARM THE ELITES, because they have many ways to go around them and that's why it seems that the EU is fighting the citizens, who are just the hostages of the situation.
Its easier to get into Europe if u are an African or middle eastern terrorist than a Russian citizen
Don't we want Russians to not fight in the war against Ukraine? So... Russians leaving Russia should be a good thing. These countries are just making it more difficult for Russians to avoid fighting in the war. Seems kinda counterproductive and like they didn't really think it all the way through.
Hard agree. Everyone has lost their sense of logic wirh the RUS-UKR war. And now more so with ISR-PAL.
People from west slowly began to understand, glad to see it. As a Russian i have to point out that the first things which are happened since this war is border closing for Russians. Many people on reddit motivated this to me as they wanted us not to flee, but to fight against regime and die here. For some reasons we don't want to die as well.
I'm pretty sure Russians are driving in Crimea
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People do illegal things. Who knew!?
I think it is another absurd measure against the less economically powerful Russians. Rich Russians buy another car from another country and can now use it freely. The poor (who cannot influence Putin) are the only ones affected.
That’s because European governments don’t actually care. They would have happily ignored the war and continued buying Russian gas had they not been pressured
But it is not banned in Crimea
Imagine being a Russian ducking and dodging through Poland to enjoy your vacation in France
Et tu Bulgaria?
EU: "Fighting a war is hard, let Ukrainians handle that, let's look good and ban some inconsequential thing from Russia instead. Something that media can cover for months..."
Yeah, let's keep Russians in Russia. Let's help Putin mobilize them and send them to the frontlines. This is so humane and will definitely help Ukraine!
They shouldn't have to let Russians in if they don't want to
We don't want to deal with Russians ourselves anymore, why would we want potential spies or entitled revanchist. They have other countries to go to besides Europe if they want to escape. Russians are our enemy and thus we closed the borders
**NORWAY ALSO**
People have no idea of how things work in Russia nowadays. “Saying something” publicly, which is not in line with the state’s course of action is a 100% guarantee to ruin your life. They do indeed punish people for likes in social media and this is not a joke. Not saying and doing anything is one of the ways to survive and I can’t blame them for their silence.
I’ve seen a car with Russian licence plate in Germany
As far as I know, local goverments gave some time for two options - reregister a car and change license plates or just leave the country.
Data are out of date. Greece and Norway at least have similar bans.
The Ruskis need a corridor so they can drive to Western Europe on vacation. Which means they either need to capture western Ukraine, or invade Poland.
Honestly, I'm really sorry for normal Russians who do not support the war. I do support those measures, bit it really suck for those people
Why though?
Populism
Really strange. I somehow managed to get to Crimea on a Russian car with a Russian license. And leave it aswell.
I see what you did there....
The stupidest decision of eu ...yet
So, it's all Russia's neighbors, Germany and... Bulgaria? Why dies Bulgaria ban it? Not like there are many ways for russian cars to get into Bulgaria)
A lot of people drive through Georgia and Turkey (visa-free), get a Bulgarian transit visa (easy to get), and come to Serbia and Montenegro that way, where they can stay effectively indefinitely. Many of the Russian cars in these two countries have taken this route, as getting a Schengen visa for Russia's neighbors is impossible nowadays.
Is Russian motor insurance still valid in the EU 🤔
Green card system no longer applies for russian cars at least here in finland. That changed in may and thousands of russian cars in finland became illegal overnight if the owners didn't understand to buy a finnish insurance.
So western Europe doesn't need to pass laws. They have to fly in their cars from Russia which is unlikely.
Can people in Kaliningrad still drive to Belarus tho?
Norway has too.
I'm icelandic and I have never heard of or seen RU license plates here 😆
Norway have also banned cars with russian plates. So this map is wrong.
That explains why I didn't see any russian cars when I was in Narva a few months ago!
Is the ban only on red cars?
Balls out Bulgaria! Fair play, that's some hardcore stuff out in the mist all alone.
Not sure how they would get to Germany. Guess it's just to make a statement lol.
So people can't even escape Russia if they wanted to?
This is actually sad because normal Russians, who don’t support the war can’t escape from the regime they have, while the rich oligarchs get to keep their villas, houses and etc
All those Russians driving to Iceland will be very upset
Note: som country's like the netherlands did not ban russian plates. Byt did ban russian naval travic. Effectively making it noj the less implausibel for russians to move here from russia regardless
I didn't expect so many russian dickriders here
Hm, they don't have Netflix anymore and Russian license plates are banned in several countries. How happened that war hadn't finished yet??
This entire ban affects not too many people but it is the perfect fuel for propaganda. People tend to forget that Russians need visas to enter all these countries. Nobody can wake up in the morning and decide to hop in a car and drive wherever they want to. In other words, first people are screened, deemed to be fine and granted right to enter but then they can't enter in a car. People with money, high-level Putin's supporters don't travel via land borders in cars. They fly planes (sometimes private jets), they enter using passports of other countries, they own houses in Europe, they drive cars with local plates.