The Russian customs office is reporting a large number of illegal garments and footwear smuggled from mainland China, via Kazakhstan to Russia. Last week in a single passenger train from Bishkek to Sverdlovsk over five tonnes of illegally transported garments and footwear were seized by the Russian Customs Office. Over 140 kg of illegal goods were recently confiscated from a person travelling from Kyrgyzstan who kept the items in the restaurant wagon of the train.

Customs claim that they will step up searches in the future, but that is unlikely to stop the perpetrators. There are four main border points between the Russia and Kazakhstan with about 25,000 people crossing the border between the two countries every day.

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