Russian customs blocks mobile phones

The new rules and requirements - as of Monday this week (until September) - state that all imported mobile phones must be checked. This means no random check, but opening the packaging to every phone in order to inspect the batteries, memory cards and if all identification is correct, reports Dagens Industri which refers to Russian Vedomosti. So far, not a single mobile phone has gone through customs, the newspape continues. Nokia's Russian public relations manager, Viktoria Jeremina, is cited in saying that the company has more than 440,000 mobile phones blocked by Russian customs authorities - worth around €30 million. Samsung is apparently another company that has thousands of mobile phone blocked. Sony Ericsson will have to pay penalties to its customers for late deliveries as well as pay the rental for the customs warehouse, the company's Russian Marketing Manager, Viktoria German, is cited.