Recital (25)

Some parts of the Russian gas transmission infrastructure are directly connected to the Union, and some transit pipelines connecting the Russian Federation with the Union run through third countries without currently having any entry points between the Russian Federation and the Union. It should therefore be presumed that natural gas imported into the Union via borders, interconnectors, or interconnection points between the Russian Federation and the Union, Belarus and the Union as well as natural gas arriving via pipelines such as TurkStream at the interconnection point Strandzha 2 / Malkoclar originates in or is exported, directly or indirectly, from the Russian Federation. Where it is claimed that natural gas arriving at these borders, interconnectors, or interconnection points is under a transit procedure through the Russian Federation, strict controls should apply. The Russian Federation is a major gas exporter and has not played any significant role as a gas transit country in the past, due to several factors, such as the lack of regasification infrastructure, the organisation of gas trade in the Russian Federation via a pipeline export monopoly, business models of Russian gas companies which are not based on organising transits, and the Russian Federation’s geographical location. Therefore, and taking into account incentives of Russian suppliers to circumvent the import prohibition, customs authorities should refuse the import of volumes of natural gas allegedly in transit unless unambiguous evidence can be provided which establishes that the relevant gas has been in transit through the Russian Federation and that its country of production is not the Russian Federation. That evidence should be provided to the authorising authorities sufficiently in advance to allow for the traceability of the imported gas up to the place of production and no later than one month before the entry into the customs territory of the Union.