Not the same thing:

Carnet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A carnet may refer to:

A document allowing the importation of certain goods to countries without paying customs duty. Three types exist:
-ATA Carnet, for temporary importation of goods and equipment
-Carnet de Passages, for motor vehicles
-TIR Carnet, to simplify administrative formalities of transit commercial goods carried by international road transport

As I mentioned, as far as I know, NONE of the former USSR countries process Carnet de Passages documents. They will refuse to touch it at the border.

Russia do ATA Carnets ... but ATA Carnets are not the ones issued by the RAC for vehicles. RAC does Carnet de Passages docs.

But you do not need an ATA carnet to bring a vehicle to Russia.

Any carnet will not cut your costs of bringing in a vehicle to any of the stans. The carnet is there to guarantee you will take the vehicle out of the country again. And by guaranteeing that you take the vehicle out of the country, the border guys can rest assured the vehicle is not being imported to be sold. Therefore, the carnet allows the vehicle to be exempt from customs duty (import tax). It is not an exemption for any of the fuel taxes, environmental taxes, road taxes, or stamp duties / processing fees that some countries charge on entry, which are levied as a fee for you to use their customs border facilities, road system, and in the case of Turkmenistan, to counter the fact that petrol there is virtually free (you pay your fuel taxes at the border rather than at the pump like in most countries).

As mentioned earlier, the only notable entry fees in the region is fuel tax in Turkmenistan.

Unless you absolutely need a carnet, then dont get one.

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Thanks for that Walter, I was hoping the carnet would get you off these charges as I will have one if I decide to go to India and Pakistan, but it looks like they will have to be paid anyway.

Turkmenistan: They will not give you a visa at the boarder. If fact, the embassy will not even give you a visa unless you have the visas for the country you are coming from and going too already granted. Very strict.

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