Mainstream post-positivist approaches to Border Studies typically represent national borders as losing their importance or blurring. This insight usually fails to grasp the perspective of those who have to cross 'hard' borders, for whom these borders are primarily 'hard facts' quite precisely restricting territorial limits of their movement. Aiming to take this perspective and practical problems experienced by such border crossers into account, the author proposes an approach focusing on communication between those who cross 'hard' borders and those who protect these borders. The case of the EU-Russian border shows that border crossers have an increasing range of options to make themselves heard by their own country's officials, though it is much more difficult for them to reach gatekeepers and public on the other side of the border without resorting to intermediaries (such as their states or business actors). The author suggests that border crossers could be heard better if cross-border cooperation initiatives would prioritise this purpose thus making the EU's external borders not only 'friendly' or 'blurred' but also 'dialogic'.
This article focuses on two main issues: the ability of informal cross-border entrepreneurs to avoid restrictions imposed by a government, and governmental capacity to make these restrictions work efficiently in the long term. Two kinds of informal trade activities between Russia and
Japan—import of used cars and trafficking of marine bioresources—are taken as case studies. I argue that in both cases informal cross-border traders have tried to exploit cross-border differences to their benefit, balancing between legal, low-punishable, and heavily punishable
practices. Both kinds of informal trade proved to be highly resistant to suppressive government policies and highly capable of exploiting legal and law enforcement loopholes. Still, suppressive government policies proved to be at least partially successful in the long term.
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