Since September 17, border checks across Poland have prevented entry for most vehicles registered in Russia, with only a single Russian-registered car allowed into Poland to date. A Border Guard spokesperson, Anna Michalskaya, conveyed this update to the RAR agency via RIA News.
According to Michalskaya, after Poland implemented a prohibition on Russian-registered passenger cars, only one such vehicle has been permitted to attempt entry. The spokesperson explained that this exception occurred at the Russian border, and that in every other instance drivers were informed of the ban before attempting to cross.
Border protection statistics show that in the week preceding the ban, from September 10 to 16, roughly 400 Russian-registered cars entered Poland. The majority of these vehicles arrived from the Kaliningrad region on the Russian border, while a smaller portion crossed from Belarus. The enforcement picture shifted notably with the new restrictions in place.
Over the following weekend, between September 16 and 17, Finnish customs authorities did not admit 37 vehicles registered in Russia. The broader regional rollout of the restrictions began on September 13 in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Finland then implemented its own entry ban on September 16. Norway remains the last Schengen border country to allow car entry from Russia, a status that has drawn attention amid varying border policies across Europe.
There has been ongoing discussion about whether France will adopt similar restrictions on Russian-registered cars entering its territory, reflecting a wider trend across several European states to curb overland traffic from Russia. The rapid changes underscore the evolving landscape of cross-border mobility and the complexity of coordinating policy across neighboring countries in the Schengen area, where border control measures can shift with regional security concerns and diplomatic developments.
In summary, a tightening sequence took hold across the Baltic states, Poland, and Finland in mid-September, with Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia implementing bans on Russian-registered passenger vehicles, followed soon after by Finland. The question of harmonization among neighboring nations persists as governments weigh national security, economic considerations, and the practical impact on travelers and freight corridors that traverse multiple borders in the region. (Source attribution: RIA News reporting through RAR)