[Epoch Times November 02, 2021](Epoch Times reporter Gao Shan compiled a report) The Russian Customs and Security Department announced that it has uncovered a large-scale criminal gang that smuggled timber into China. The recent reports of large-scale timber smuggling cases into China have made Russian President Putin angry and ordered a thorough investigation of relevant departments.
According to a report by the Russian “Kommersant” on November 1, in a joint operation of the Russian Customs, the Russian Federal Security Service and the Prosecutor’s Office, a criminal group illegally exported 260 million rubles (approximately equivalent to 24 million) to China. RMB) timber case.
Russia’s Siberian Customs Information Service official, Aziya Morodzova, disclosed in this case that the investigation revealed that a foreign citizen came to the local area to organize and run an illegal enterprise. He hired a collaborator to serve as the founder, director and chief accountant of the specially established company, and hired employees with forestry export experience, especially requiring them to have the ability to prepare and record documents in the forest system.
Customs officers determined that from 2018 to 2021, the criminal group exported timber to 16 Chinese companies under 25 foreign-related economic contracts. The export of round wood and lumber is carried out through customs checkpoints in Om, Tomsk, Irkutsk and Krasnoyarsk regions. During this period, the criminal gang shipped more than 45,000 cubic meters of wood worth more than 2.5 billion rubles (approximately 229 million yuan). According to the survey, the timber was harvested in the Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk regions.
Siberian customs officer Alexei Yakovlev said: “In order to smuggle timber from the domestic market to China, criminal groups forged timber trading and logging documents and introduced unreliable intelligence to the Lesegais forest system. “
According to reports, the planner of the criminal gang has been detained in the city of Kansk in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. He has pleaded guilty. He and his assistant are under criminal investigation.
This is just one of many recent cases where large amounts of timber smuggled into China have been cracked. Russia’s Zabaikalsk News Network (zab.ru) said in a report on October 9 that a local NGO “District 75” confirmed with a large number of photos and videos that Russia’s forests (timber) are still continuing. It was shipped to China on an astonishing scale.
Russian media reported that local Russian residents in Zabaikal protested: “This is almost a desert. Some people will become billionaires and then immigrate to Russia.”
According to relevant data, in 2019 alone, 100,000 cubic meters of timber in the Zabaikalsk region was illegally felled and smuggled from the local area to China.
Russian media quoted data from China’s Harbin Customs showing that Russian timber exports to China have increased by 31% this year. Since the beginning of this year alone, China has imported 481 million US dollars of Russian timber.
Illegal deforestation and the smuggling of timber to China have made Russian President Putin angry and demanded a thorough investigation of the field.
According to a report by the Russian “Business News FM” radio network (BFM.ru) on October 30, Putin met with the head of the Russian Federal Financial Supervision Agency (Rosfinmonitoring) Yuri Chihancin on the same day. During the meeting, Putin ordered that he must “drive out forestry and fishery crooks.” In his mission to the Federal Financial Supervision Agency, Putin asked for a thorough investigation of the relevant underground financial operation network and banning it.
Chihanchin said that he agrees that at the current stage, these two areas are the “criminally rampant” industries.
People in the forestry industry interviewed by the “Business News FM” radio network said that the “forestry problem” Putin mentioned is mainly about the large amount of illegally harvested timber in the Far East, which is then illegally transferred to China.
Russian forestry professionals say that this problem has long been known. Since 2014, there have been videos and photos of “bare hills felled by the Chinese”, “mountains of wood”, and “trains full of wood bound for China” and other videos and photos have been disclosed. It also includes stunning aerial video of drones, which aroused the anger of Russian society.
Although Russian officials have also formulated relevant measures to try to curb this wave of smuggling to China, these measures are tantamount to “dropping the bucket” in the face of the profits brought about by the ultra-high demand for timber in China. The seized timber smuggling cases are only the “tip of the iceberg.”
Editor in charge: Ye Ziwei#
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