President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia is losing billions of rubles due to goods being brought into the country without proper documentation across the border with Kazakhstan. He emphasized that trucks «are simply pouring into Russia’s customs territory,» and as a result, «the Russian Federation is missing out on—without exaggeration—billions, tens of billions of rubles in budget revenue.» Putin also said that traffic jams involving trucks at the Russian-Kazakh border were caused by efforts to combat illegal imports. During a press briefing following his visit to Kyrgyzstan, the president acknowledged that, on his instructions, the customs service—«within the EAEU framework, our customs authorities have the right to do this»—began carrying out selective inspections on the roads. According to him, it turned out that «a significant number of goods,» trucks and lorries «are crossing the Russian-Kazakh border» without any documents, describing it as «simply black-market imports.» The Russian leader agreed that Russia and Kazakhstan share a common customs space, a common market, and free movement of capital and goods, but stressed that every truck must still carry a set of documents agreed upon by both states. This must include documentation of the cargo and, at minimum, clear information about the consignee. It should be immediately clear what customs duties and VAT must be paid when the goods enter Russian territory.

Amid the overall crisis, a sharp decline in production indicators has been reported