Has anyone driven to Italy with a car on Russian plates via Georgia–Turkey–Bulgaria — what’s the situation like there and how many borders do you have to go through? Do you have to wait at each one for days? The route, as I understand it: Russia/Georgia border, then Georgia/Turkey, Turkey/Bulgaria, Bulgaria/Serbia?
They closed the Poland–Lithuania crossing to Russian plates — I passed through myself on September 8 with no problems, but a week later it was a complete ban. So now everyone’s looking at the Georgian route. The situation at the Bulgarian border is unclear though — it’s EU territory, and nobody has said anything concrete about how they’re handling Russian plates.
3 Likes
Thanks, Tanya. Do you happen to know if you had to wait a long time at the Georgian border when you went, or did the route only become popular later?
3 Likes
Bulgaria is in the EU — and that’s exactly where things fell apart for us on the way. We drove from Moscow by car; in spring everything was fine, but in autumn they started impounding cars with Russian license plates right on the roads in Germany. We were afraid to drive any further, so we left the car with relatives in Switzerland. Then we got Polish insurance and switched vehicles. So the Bulgarian border is the same risk as Germany — the EU is the EU; the seizure rule formally applies everywhere.
3 Likes
Last time I chose to fly via Gdańsk precisely because of that — the Milan–Gdańsk flight, then a bus to Kaliningrad, and onward. It’s obviously longer, but when you see cars with Russian plates being stopped right on the roads in Germany, all those routes through Bulgaria feel like a lottery. Now I’m actually thinking about how to properly get a car bought in Germany over here — it turns out there’s a whole separate story with transit plates and export paperwork.
3 Likes
About German transits I found the answer to my own question — I cleared customs in Italy through an agency; they inspected the car and the documents themselves before shipping, then forwarded them to their contacts in Germany. The whole procedure took an hour, and after lunch we already had the German transits. And regarding seizures in the EU — we had an incident in Italy too, but it turned out not to be because of deadlines, but because of invalid insurance. So even if you pass through Bulgaria fine, you need to sort out the insurance separately in advance — that’s a whole other story.
3 Likes
I was looking at a route via Tallinn — a bus from St. Petersburg, then a flight from Tallinn airport to Milan or Rome. With an Italian type D visa, transit through Estonia is allowed without a separate visa — the consulate confirmed. But that’s without a car, of course. As for insurance for cars with Russian plates in the EU — I had a separate story paying an Italian fine from Georgia; Italian payment services simply wouldn’t accept cards from a Georgian bank, I spent three weeks on it. Insurance for cars with Russian plates is the same kind of separate quest.
3 Likes
From Belarus the situation is different — there are rides in private cars Russia–Belarus–EU; they also provide contacts for people who handle the crossing into the EU. For Russia–Belarus they charge 10–20 thousand rubles; the EU is pricier but not outrageously so. Going through the Polish crossing alone is hard right now — the Poles and Lithuanians are being particularly strict. And money‑wise, a flight via Yerevan or Turkey ends up costing about the same as going overland with luggage once you factor in the overnight stay and travel time — it’s no longer obvious that taking the car all the way through Georgia is worth it.
3 Likes
Arrived in June on Russian plates — Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland. Back then everything went smoothly; now that same route is already closed, I know I was lucky with the timing. Since then I’ve been driving around Italy on the same Russian plates. I’m waiting for my residence permit and residency status — as soon as I get them, I’ll buy a car here and take the Russian-registered car back. Insurance for Russian-registered plates in the EU is really a separate story; it’s better to sort it out in advance — at the border it’s already too late.
3 Likes