How to send a parcel to Russia in 2023

Lifestyle
SOFIA POLYAKOVA
Due to the current geopolitical climate, most of the shipping services no longer deliver to Russia. But there are several companies that can help you out!

Before February 2022, you could have sent a parcel or a letter to Russia via a state post or a range of international shipping and delivery companies as DHL, FedEx, UPS and others. All these options are, unfortunately, no longer available. However, there are some new ones.

Companies that ship to Russia

Our list may not be complete, but here’s what we’ve managed to find:

Boxberry is a Russian delivery company that recently launched international shipments. Actually, it’s a B2C service, so usually it organizes delivery for online stores and other forms of business. However, the representatives of the company confirmed that they can also send a package from individual to individual under some conditions. 

Everything in the parcel has to be bought online. So, it’s impossible to send homemade jam or a sweater you knitted yourself. 

You need an invoice with the following details: the list of items you are sending, their names, their prices, quantity and overall worth. You also need links to all the items you are sending. These documents are required for your parcel to pass through customs. 

The addressee (receiver) is supposed to have an account on the Boxberry website, registered with their passport details and phone number. All the next steps will be completed through the receiver’s account.

If you live in an area that doesn’t have BXB warehouses, you can order any local delivery to get your parcel to the warehouse. You’ll find the address of the warehouse in the Boxberry account.

When the package gets to the warehouse, you will receive a tracking code. After that, you register the tracking code in your account and all the subsequent procedures will be completed there.

The Boxberry account only allows you to pay for the delivery with a Russian bank card, but you can individually contact the service to set up a payment with PayPal or the recipient will have to pay for it. All notifications about your parcel will be sent to the contact information you provided in the account.

BXB delivers to Russia from the U.S., Germany, India and Turkey. For example, delivery of a 2 kg parcel from the U.S. (warehouse in New Jersey) to Moscow would take 16-22 days and cost approx. $40. 

CDEK can be a solution if you need to send documents. That’s the only type of parcel the company delivers. To send documents, you have to contact your local office by phone or email listed on the website. Also mind that identity documents, passports, for example, cannot be sent. Same goes for bank cards, bills of exchange, bonds, stocks, calendars, advertising materials, portraits, notebooks and so on  – CDEK won’t deliver them.

CDEK operates in the following countries: the U.S., United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Italy, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Turkey, UAE, Vietnam, Israel, Poland, France, China, Germany and South Korea.

Aggregator services

The following services don’t have their own delivery service and send items by means of other shipping services. They search for the best options and “dock” them all together.

This Russian aggregator service doesn’t organize the transportation itself, but finds the best offers all over the world, combining several delivery services when needed. The company claims it can ship anything: documents, items, letters and works with both individuals and legal entities. TSM operates in 241 countries including Russia. Be ready to provide exhaustive information about the items you want to send – it will be used for the customs check. You can contact the team via the website or by phone. We didn’t contact any customers using this service, so please, be careful and make additional inquiries if you intend to use them.

The very same applies to this service. For instance, UPS takes your parcel and delivers it to the TrustExpress agent in Estonia. Then, it is sent to Russia. You will have to provide an address of the sender in English. The company will send you a consignment note you will have to print out. Then, you should call the number you were given by the TrustExpress to name the code of consignment and confirm the order. When the courier arrives, you will hand him the parcel and consignment. 

One of the customers we managed to contact claims that his parcel was delivered from the U.S. to Russia in two weeks for $150. But, there is also a small setback – the service’s website doesn’t have an English version, but you can contact the team via WhatsApp or e-mail and you’ll get an answer in English.

In each case, the price of the delivery varies greatly, depending on the departure and destination points, weight of the parcel, the way you’d like the recipient to get the package (at the pickpoint or with the courier), parcel’s worth, etc. Each delivery is calculated individually.

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