The conflict of legal acts is resolved according to the juridical power of the legal acts. The Constitution has supreme power over the whole territory of Russia. Codes and Federal constitutional laws have more power than Federal laws. A conflict between Regional and Federal laws is decided in favor of a Regional law if one is admitted within the regional competence and vice versa. An international treaty that has been ratified has direct effect and precedence over domestic legislation.

Russia is a civil law country; decisions rendered by courts are not binding on other courts. However, the lower courts generally follow the principles established by the Supreme Courts. Moreover, according to art.304 of the Code of Procedure in Commercial Courts, the Economic Panel of the Supreme Court (until 2014 – Supreme Commercial Court) can set aside a decision of a lower court on the grounds that this decision contravenes uniformity in interpretation of law as established by case law. In practice precedents of the higher courts are becoming an important source of Russian law.

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Russian Law Resources in English: http://www.russianlawonline.com

President of the Russian Federation: http://president.kremlin.ru

The Russian administrative bodies: http://www.gov.ru

Security Council: http://www.scrf.gov.ru

The Council of the Federation: http://www.council.gov.ru

The State Duma: http://www.duma.gov.ru

The Government: http://www.pravitelstvo.gov.ru

The Constitutional Court: http://ks.rfnet.ru

The Supreme Court: http://www.supcourt.ru

Federal Courts: https://sudrf.ru/

The Central Bank: http://www.cbr.ru

The Central Electoral Commission: http://www.fci.ru

The Federal Tax Service: https://nalog.ru/

Unified Portal for State Services: https://gosuslugi.ru/

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Russia is a member state of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Russia shares its customs and border regime with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

The customs legislation is codified. It consists of the Customs Code of EAEU, and corresponding EAEU acts, treaties, Federal laws, orders of the President, ordinances of the Government and numerous regulations of the Federal Customs Service. On As an EAEU member, Russia also is a member of multiple free trade agreements (e.g. between EAEU and Singapore, Vietnam or Serbia).

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The Federal Customs Service is a united centralised organization, which is answerable to the Government of the Russian Federation. It is responsible for control of imported and exported goods in the Russian Federation; the collection of customs payments, anti-dumping and compensations duties; the compilation of statistics; the prevention and restraint of cross-border fraud and the violation of the currency control regulation. The Federal Customs Service is a huge organization employing tens of thousands of people and is responsible for the major source of state revenues. It is often criticized for being a difficult and unpredictable organization. Yet, as governmental e-services spiked in Russia in recent years, many of the services are provided via the Federal Customs Service website, accelerating the decision-making process and making it more transparent.

Entry points

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Goods may be imported into the Russian Federation through the entry points on the Russian border. Some goods, however, e.g. alcohol, tobacco or meat, can be imported only through specially designated places.

Import licenses and quotas

As a general rule, goods entering the Russian Federation can be imported without any restrictions. There is, however, a rather narrow list of goods which can only be imported with the authority of a license granted by the government such as, e.g. alcohol, encryption systems or military objects. In some cases the government imposes quotas or special duties on particular goods. This normally includes such goods as meat, fish or products of agriculture.

Since accession to the WTO, number of import quotas has been gradually falling, quotas being effectively replaced by import tariffs. Still, at the moment this report is being written quotas are imposed on several categories of goods, like metal or meat.

In 2021, however, several important changes in customs legislation come in force. Firstly, from January 1, 2021, customs duties are to be paid simultaneously with customs reporting unless the goods are imported from another EAEU member state. Also, new rules are set for expertice of imported items of cultural and artistic values and some medical products. In February 2021 (with a follow-up in April 2021) new rules for filing a customs declaration come into force, and from March 1, 2021, additional marks in paperback documents will not be made in case of electronic customs declaration filing.

Origin of goods

Goods are considered to originate in a country where they were wholly produced or largely processed. Documentary evidence, in the form of a certificate of origin, is normally required. The certificate must clearly state that goods originate in a particular country and the certificate must contain a written statement of the sender of the goods that they comply with a relevant criteria of origin. The statement must be witnessed by the state authorities of the sender’s country.

As a result of “counter-sanctions” after 2014 sanctions from EU/EEA and other countries, some products originating in the EU/EEA and/or some other countries which imposed sanctions on Russia are either only available to be imported in moderate amounts for personal use only or completely banned. This applies mostly to foods and delicacies (e.g. meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, etc.), but the list is subject to change. So-called “counter-sanctions” were originally imposed in 2014 by an order of the President, and originally were to expire on August 6, 2015, but the order has been renewed annually ever since.

Customs payments

Customs payments include customs duty, VAT, excise, and a fee for the registration of goods.

Customs duty is usually charged as an ad valorem duty. An obligation to pay the duty arises the moment goods cross the customs border.

The principle method of the valuation of goods is the transaction method, based on the price actually paid for the goods. Once this method cannot be applied, in particular when there is no documentary evidence, or the information provided does not appear to be true, or when buyers acquire limited rights over goods or their rights depend on unpredictable circumstances, or when a transaction takes place between connected persons, customs officers can use other methods of valuation, for example those based on the price with identical or analogous goods, prices on internal market for similar products or even methods based on assumed production costs and delivery expenses and others. However, such valuation, as well as classification of goods to some extent, may be challenged in commercial courts.

Due to the CoViD-19 pandemic, reduced customs duty rates are currently applied to products of critical import and medical products that help fight the coronavirus (thode include some foods like potatos or rice and products of medical use like thermometers, endoscopes and some medicines). However, those reduced rates and reliefs expire on March 31, 2021.

Imported goods, generally, are subject to VAT. There are some exceptions; certain medical equipment is an example. Imported technological equipment contributed into a charter capital of a Russian company is also exempt of VAT. The VAT rate is 20 per cent; for some goods such as some items for children, certain medicines and food the VAT rate is 10 per cent.