Bulgaria became the latest EU country on Tuesday to ban the entry Russian-registered cars, joining Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Poland, according to Euractiv.
Russians can currently enter Bulgaria with their cars, mainly through Turkey, although there are no official figures on how many vehicles use the route every year.
Under the new rules, Russian cars in general will not be banned as many circulate within the country, but any new entries will be prohibited.
“I am sure that by the end of the day, the ban on the entry of Russian cars will also start to operate on the territory of Bulgaria. For Russian trucks, the ban has been in effect for several months,” said Border Police director Anton Zlatanov, as quoted by the Bulgarian National Television.
Two days ago, the influential MP from the DPS, Delyan Peevski, sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act, called on the authorities to introduce a ban on the entry of Russian cars, as border security is key to Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen.
They did so based on clarifications from the European Commission regarding the application of Russian sanctions.
The Commission has equated the entry into the EU of cars registered in the Russian Federation as illegal imports, regardless of whether the vehicle is used for personal or commercial purposes. The sanctions clarifications are not legally binding and each EU country is free to make its own decisions on how to apply them.