Lithuanian Customs started seizing some cars driven by Belarusians. Here's the catch

Photo: Lithuanian Customs (Lietuvos muitinė) on Facebook

The topic of car seizures is actively discussed among truckers and thematic bloggers. Later, the Lithuanian customs also reported on the violations.

Why did truckers speak up first?

The thing is, among truckers, especially in recent years, the topic of obtaining so-called PP series passports has become popular.

Previously, Belarusian citizens who officially emigrated for permanent residence in another country received a special PP series passport.

For the past few years, PP series passports have not been issued; instead, stamps are placed in a regular passport to indicate permanent consular registration, but colloquially, this procedure is still referred to as obtaining a PP passport.

Павялічыць

Illustrative photo: Nasha Niva

For truckers and other Belarusian citizens working in the EU but wishing to visit their homeland by car, such a passport offers two advantages: firstly, one can enter with a foreign-registered car and arrange temporary import as a foreigner, meaning without leaving a financial guarantee equivalent to the customs duties for importing the vehicle.

In simple terms, this allows one to drive around Belarus in cars with Lithuanian, Polish, or other foreign license plates without paying customs duties, recycling fees, or other charges.

Furthermore, a car with European license plates also offers the opportunity to cross the borders between Belarus and the EU without restrictions.

If truckers and other Belarusians limited themselves only to these advantages of cars with European registration, they would not face any problems at the border.

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Illustrative photo: AP

Savings that started to backfire

The second advantage of a 'PP passport' lies in the fact that its holders can not only officially emigrate for permanent residence to another country but also return.

Moreover, a person who has registered for permanent consular accounting can, upon returning to Belarus, bring their property that they owned in another country without paying customs duties.

This list includes cars. The main condition is that such a car or other vehicle must have been registered in the country where the person moved for permanent residence for at least six months before returning to Belarus.

And as practice shows, many truckers actively use this opportunity and, after waiting for all formalities regarding the period of car ownership abroad, return from foreign permanent residence to Belarus.

And since the car is considered personal property, it is imported into Belarus without paying customs duties, which allows saving not just one thousand euros.

Павялічыць

Illustrative photo: Nasha Niva

And the larger the engine volume, the greater the customs duty savings; 'PP passport' holders tried to bring in cars with large engine volumes. This is an important point because, since summer 2024, sanctions prohibit the export of cars with an engine volume greater than 1.9 liters to Belarus.

The exception is cars older than five years, but in such a case, the ground clearance must be less than 165 mm, which means SUVs, crossovers, microvans, and some minivans with an engine volume greater than 1.9 liters have effectively come under a complete ban on export to Belarus.

The news about the seizure of two cars in Medininkai specifically concerns sanctioned vehicles: a Mazda CX-5 crossover, which has a minimum engine volume of 2.0 liters, and a Jeep Grand Cherokee, whose minimum engine volume in the lineup is 3 liters.

Entered Belarus with a Lithuanian car, exited with a Belarusian one

According to information from Lithuanian Customs, a Mazda CX-5 left the EU territory on March 31, 2026. At that time, the car had Lithuanian registration, but already on June 3, the same Mazda CX-5 returned from Belarus to Lithuania as a car registered in Belarus, without export declaration from Lithuania to third countries. This became the reason for the car's seizure and the initiation of an administrative case.

A similar situation occurred with a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which left the EU on October 14, 2025, with Lithuanian plates, but was also later registered in Belarus without export declaration.

One of the trucker bloggers, who actively covers this topic, recently read out a protocol sent to him by one of his subscribers. It indicates that the discussion concerns the export of cars to Belarus circumventing sanctions. The fact of customs clearance in Belarus was also verified through the official database on the Belarusian customs website.

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Photo: Lithuanian Customs (Lietuvos muitinė) on Facebook

And this is not an isolated case where sanctioned cars are seized at the border. Lithuanian customs also reported recently on the seizure of an Audi Q7 that arrived from Belarus, and a VW Transporter from Russia, which, as it turned out, was simultaneously registered in Lithuania and Russia, and its owner changed plates depending on the border being crossed.

How should one act according to the law?

Both cars were seized due to suspicions of sanctions circumvention. The further fate of these cars will be decided by the court.

In its messages, Lithuanian Customs reminds that for the legal export of cars from the EU to third countries, an export (EX) declaration must be issued.

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Illustrative photo: lookby.media

And if it concerns non-sanctioned cars, it's not difficult to do, but with sanctioned ones, it's not so simple.

In theory, of course, the applicant may try to argue that the export to Belarus is part of transporting personal property, and therefore sanctions are supposedly irrelevant here.

However, a situation where a person genuinely returns from the EU to Belarus after a long time and the cases described above likely have nothing in common.

Because if a person working in Lithuania registers a car in their name, then exports it to Belarus, registers it with Belarusian plates, and returns to Lithuania, they are only formally changing their permanent place of residence, as they are going back to Lithuania, where they have a residence permit and continue to work as before.

That is, de facto, this loophole in the legislation is primarily used to circumvent European Union restrictions and avoid paying customs duties in Belarus.

It should be noted that there are no restrictions for Belarusian citizens with European residence permits regarding purchasing cars in the EU, or traveling with them to Belarus.

Not only savvy truckers are at risk

It appears that not only those who exploited this loophole might encounter problems when entering the EU with Belarusian-registered cars.

A car previously brought in using the same scheme can be purchased by anyone after some time. The new owner might not even realize that the car entered Belarus circumventing European regulations.

Moreover, in Belarus over the past two years, a certain number of cars have appeared that were specifically brought in by order or for sale, circumventing European sanctions.

Павялічыць

Illustrative photo: Nasha Niva

Such cars are also at risk because their export to Belarus was illegal. It doesn't matter if this was done through export to third countries or if the car simply left the EU without an export declaration.

Therefore, Belarusians who purchase used cars should keep this additional risk in mind.

You can check the customs clearance date of a car in Belarus by its VIN number on the customs website. If you see that the car was brought from Europe and cleared through customs in Belarus after June 4, 2024, it is worth additionally checking whether it was subject to sanctions at that time.

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