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Work of customs in RF requires radical measures – Medvedev

Medvedev said, “The work of the customs service, which makes a monkey of Russia, cannot be improved without taking radical measures”

SKOLKOVO, October 29 (Itar-Tass) — President Dmitry Medvedev said the work of the customs service in Russia could not be improved without taking radical measures.

At the meeting with young scientists and innovators on Saturday, Medvedev said, “The work of the customs service, which makes a monkey of Russia, cannot be improved without taking radical measures.”

The president commented on the words of one of the participants saying a foreign specialist, who arrived in Russia for work, was asked to pay 20,000 euro tax on his own things, including old sling back pumps.

“Whatever they do, everything turn inside out,” Medvedev said annoyed that when he heard such things “I want to throw the microphone against the wall”. “These are idiot demands that make a monkey of all of us,” he said.

He considers the situation absurd when Russia is searching for investors abroad, and the customs considerably complicates their arrival in the country. “This is a big problem,” Medvedev said. “I’m afraid we must take radical measures although we’d done this,” the Russian president stressed.