I have a journalist friend who covered this. Refugees from places like Syria would be shuttled through several countries by bus and train, but also often long distances by taxi, to land up in Nikel, where they'd have to pay some exorbitant price for a bicycle so they could get across the border into Norway. The law of course caused a huge market for bicycles in Nikel.

I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising individuals in Norway bought the bikes back at reduced prices and shipped them back to Russia so the process could begin again.