Smugglers took a billion dollars' worth of timber from Transbaikalia abroad.

According to Irina Volk, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, a local resident and a citizen of an East Asian country formed a gang in the Trans-Baikal Territory and illegally exported timber from Russia. 

They had been doing this since 2012. The total damage amounted to 1 billion rubles. A criminal case has been opened. 

Transbaikal regularly appears in news reports related to smuggling. On November 7, two residents were put on trial for removal 40 thousand cubic meters of timber to China in 2021, local security forces nipped smuggling of cedars. Moreover, in 2020, Governor Alexander Osipov He claimedthat illegal timber exports from China have been completely stopped.