Russian customs officials have detained a German man who was trying to cross the border from Estonia into Russia, with some 13 kilograms of fine gold hidden in his caravan.
The 21 gold bars, worth a total of more than 90 million rubles ($980,000), were not declared by the 58-year-old man, Russian authorities said.
The gold bars, which bore the hallmarks of a Western company, were discovered during a search of the caravan and the man’s personal belongings. It was unclear how he had obtained the gold.
According to the customs declaration, the man was initially placed under house arrest.
He now faces criminal charges of smuggling strategically important goods and, if convicted, could face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to 1 million rubles.
A spokeswoman for the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin told dpa on Tuesday that it was aware of the case and that the Consulate General in St. Petersburg had offered assistance to the German man. She did not provide further details.
Russian officials, including those from the domestic intelligence service (FSB), found the rectangular metal bars in a cupboard and smaller gold bars in the man’s private belongings, customs officials said.
It was unclear where the man got the gold. In the aftermath of Moscow’s war on Ukraine, many foreign citizens in Russia are trying to get their valuables out of the country to safety.
It was also initially unknown why the man wanted to import gold in this quantity. There is a limit of €10,000 for duty-free imports into Russia. The European Union has also imposed sanctions on gold imports from Russia, as it has for many commodities, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Moscow recently released several German citizens in a prisoner exchange earlier this month, including a man arrested at St. Petersburg airport in February for carrying cannabis gummy bears in his luggage.
