Belarusian timber under sanctions is being imported into the EU through Poland using forged documents stating that the products are coming from Kazakhstan. Polish customs officials say they do not have the physical capacity to verify the authenticity of all customs declarations. This is stated in a joint investigation by the Belarusian Investigative Center, the project of the Ukrainian edition of Radio Liberty "Schemes" and the publication Gazeta Wyborcza, reports UNN.
The journalists found that after the imposition of sanctions on wood from Belarus, imports of wood from Kazakhstan to the EU increased significantly. According to Eurostat, in 2022, wood products worth €14 million were imported from Kazakhstan to Poland, and in 2023, this figure increased almost fivefold to €68 million.
The journalists analyzed one of the contracts between the Kazakhstani company Nurr-electro and the Polish PLRBL for the supply of pine palisade worth almost a million euros. The contract is dated October 2022, with delivery scheduled for early 2023.
"It turned out that the signatures and stamps on the document of Kazakhstan's Nurr-electro were forged and, as noted by two independent graphic design experts, were applied to the documents using a photo editor," the investigation said.
In addition, the lawyer of the Kazakh company Nurr-electro, Arman Tuliyevich, commented to journalists that "there were no financial transactions under such a deal, let alone goods" and "we do not have such a seal." And a representative of the Belarusian shipping company Gallardo admitted that the goods were from Belarus: "we did not bring it from Kazakhstan, we brought it from Belarus, we were loaded there.
The sole owner of the Polish company that bought PLRBL, Oleg Yanovich, refused to answer journalists' questions.
As the journalists found out with the help of market sources, the timber was shipped from the warehouse of a Belarusian company owned by the aforementioned Oleh Yanovych, the investigation says.
"The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to the request by stating that the issue of circumventing sanctions is not within their competence. The Polish Customs Service noted that they do not have the physical capacity to check all customs declarations," the investigation says.
It is also reported that the Ministry of the Interior of Poland responded that an investigation into the facts set forth in the request had begun, but the agency refrained from further comment.