Border security

Fruit smugglers 'upgrade' Russian border road

Smugglers have secretly improved a country road near the Russia-Belarus border so they can drive lorries full of contraband EU fruit past Russian customs officials, it's reported.

Alexander Laznenko of the Smolensk Region Border Agency tells Tass news agency that the smugglers used heavy earth-moving equipment at night to "widen and raise the gravel track, and put in more turning and passing points" - right under the noses of the local authorities.

Earlier this month, customs officers ambushed a convoy of nine lorries there laden with 175 tonnes of Greek and Polish fruit worth 13m roubles (£154,000; $200,000), but are none the wiser about who upgraded the road through the tiny Russian village of Klimenki.

Local administration chief Sergei Listopadov said villagers have come forward to say they saw crews working on the road earlier this year. He joked to RIA Novosti news agency that he'd like to write their mysterious benefactor a "letter of thanks" for improving a road that only a horse and cart could negotiate before.