"Shuttle business" has been prospered in Russia more than twenty years. Already since the mid-90s institutional changes were aimed to stop the inflow of "gray imports" into the country. As a result of changes in formal restrictions in the past 10 years there have been changes in the practice of "gray imports" on the Russian-Chinese border. Our studies allow us to judge the stability and versatility of existing schemes and reasons for their existence. As a research case the author picked out the twin cities Blagoveshchensk and Heihe.

Key words: "gray import", "shuttle business", formal and informal institutions.