‘Winter-tyres-for-a-flower-bed’: Shuttle trade on the Finnish-Russian border

‘We will figure it out’ is a common expression among Russian shuttle traders, which refers to their ability to effectively respond to the new state restrictions regarding the crossing of the border and customary rules. I obtained an insight into how it works in practice during the ‘participant observation’ part of my fieldwork. I crossed the Finnish-Russian border for the first time in 2006. This year has been viewed as a most significant turning point for the further ‘squeezing’ of this segment of the economy, since the devastating, sharp devaluation of the rouble in 1998 (see Stammler-Gossmann 2006; Gostev/Kuskov 2006; Nedobitkov 2006). The maximum allowed customs-free import of goods to Russia per person (for one’s own need) was fixed in 2006 at 35 kg per month, instead of the previous 50 kg per week. The value of goods that was to be considered tax free was set at 65,000 roubles, approximately 2,200 dollars. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.