Shuttle traders

Shuttle traders (Russian: челноки, romanized: chelnoki, lit. 'shuttles'; Ukrainian: човники, romanized: chovniki) were people engaged in the practice of shuttle trading in late Soviet Union and post-soviet states in which traders shuttle backwards and forwards in and out of the country buying goods and then selling them within the country.[1] Originated during the perestroika times, it extended well beyond time of the collapse of the Soviet Union.[2][3]

The OECD defines shuttle trade as "the activity in which individual entrepreneurs buy goods abroad and import them for resale in street markets or small shops. Often the goods are imported without full declaration in order to avoid import duties."