iPad 2 Smuggling in Full Blossom in Russia

It is no secret for people living in Russia that waiting for official sales of Apple products to begin in Russia can take too long and really leave you with an outdated version of a gadget once you finally manage to buy it officially – only to realize a few weeks later that a new version is already announced (or shipped) in the US. So you can now either live with what you already have or start longing for a new version right away.

So many people choose a totally different approach: they buy their gadgets abroad when they are still fresh – and far from officially available in Russian stores. I have already mentioned here how awkward the situation is with sales of the most heavily advertised Apple gadgets, including the first iPhone, iPhone 3GS, and the first generation of iPad. Now it is very similar with iPad 2 but this time the crowd of people waiting for them to arrive on the flights from the US is joined by a new group of people that seems to be more agitated than ever before – Russian customs officers.

On Wednesday this week two guys have been stopped in the Moscow airport of Domodedovo smuggling a total of 20 tablet computers. Both of them chose the green corridor claiming they had nothing to declare but for some reason the customs officers decided to check their luggage and cabin baggage as well – and easily found the gadgets.

The total price of goods that can be brought to Russia undeclared should be under EUR 1,500 and this limit has obviously been exceeded by the smugglers. But the surprise is not the fact of someone importing iPads illegally – it is the fact that they are actually caught.

In the days of the first iPad the situation almost got crazy – tickets on the planes from the US to Russia were incredibly hard to get: as soon as the shipping date was announced, many tickets were booked by the guys willing to buy one for $500 and sell it in Moscow for at least $1,000 (though the price of $2,000 did not sound scary at the days either). They were reported to bring 10-30 gadgets each in their suitcases.

The customs officer were eager to meet them at the time as well – they were perfectly aware of the date when Apple began selling the gadget as well so they expected such visitors. However, smuggling was not reported at the time – a share of brand new gadgets or a good amount of money helped solve the problem. But for some reason it stopped working now that people want iPad 2 in Russia way before it is officially available here – which will not happen until at least summer as the retailers claim.

Speaking of my own experience, I have never had to deal with customs in Russia. True, I have never attempted smuggling anything that was not intended for personal use or as gifts. But every time I go abroad I invariably end by bringing a new laptop, a phone or some other gadget – not to mention a pile of clothes that seems to be dirt-cheep in the US compared to Russia. In fact, on flights from the US Russian citizens often look like suitcase traders retailers on flights from Beijing with huge packages of clothes.

Once we had four laptops for the two of us with my husband (we bought 2 of them as replacements for the two that we had with us but obviously we intended to carry out the entire migration process back home). On another occasion on the flight from New York we brought three huge LCD displays (there were three of us at the time) that were not exactly intended for personal use – instead they were for our office. But even in that situation with a huge box for every one of us we still did not attract customs’ attention for some reason.

Also sales of initial iPhone model were a very interesting example – over the long months it took Apple to negotiate the conditions for official sales in Russia, half a million phones reportedly made it to Russia without any special permission from the Cupertino giant. And while everyone knew that, the customs did not seem to report smuggling attempts for some reason.

I don’t know what happened this time or what exactly the guys involved this week did to attract attention from customs officers but if such situations do happen frequently, the flow of illegal gadgets may eventually stop and more people will wait for the official sales to replace their existing iPads with the new model – which is obviously something that Apple retailers should want a lot.

Via (in Russian)