Russia Business Directory

The supreme body of customs service in Russia is Federal Customs Service, Russian abbreviation GTS. The system is hierarchical, with customs departments in each of the federal areas (see below).

In addition, the customs houses of the three Moscow airports (Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo) as well as Central Energy Customs House and Central Basis Customs House (both in Moscow) are directly subordinate to the Federal Customs Service.

The seven customs departments in the federal aras are as follows:

• Central Customs Department (27 customs houses in 18 regions), HQ in Moscow
• North-West Customs Department (21 customs houses in 11 regions), HQ in St.Petersburg
• Southern Customs Department (21 customs houses in 13 regions), HQ in Rostov-na-Donu
• Siberian Customs Department (21 customs houses in 13 regions), HQ in Novosibirsk, HQ in Novosibirsk
• Privolzhsky Customs Department (21 customs houses in 13 regions), HQ in Nizhniy Novgorod
• Far East Customs Department (21 customs houses in 13 regions), HQ in Vladivostok
• Ural Customs Department (10 customs houses, 6 regions), HQ in Yekaterinburg

E-mail addresses of each of these departments can be found here.

Each of these departments is responsible for all customs houses in the area. In case of the disputes, the cases therefore will be sent from the local office to the respective head office.

In addition, the Russian Customs Service has a special department in the head office in Moscow taking care of contacts with business, called “Department of Cooperation with the Business Community”. You may address your general inquiries and questions to them.

The Customs Service has a separate section on its website devoted to customs tariffs. You may also want to read about customs regimes.

Russian Customs Service has representative offices in Germany and Finland, as well as in several CIS countries.

General information
Customs Code Of The Russian Federation - general provisions, customs procedures, customs payments, customs control, customs authorities (eng)

Federal Customs Service – official site of Russia’s highest customs authority; structure with regional divisions, regulations, legislation, import and export of goods, statistics, addresses, customs tariffs etc. Rather comprehensive English version, though the Russian version contains much more, including updated news (rus/eng)

Virtual Customs house - news, legal documents, information on the website of the Association of the Customs Warehouses, EMCTC (eng)

Russia's Classification of Goods - famous classification of goods for customs purposes (Russian abbreviation TK VNED) with import duties (eng).

Russian Customs Academy – official site of a higher educational institution supplying personnel for Russian customs (rus).

For business

St. Petersburg Business Guide - customs regulations and information about Northwest Customs Department (the territory includes St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast, Archangelsk Oblast, Vologda Oblast, the Republic of Karelia, the Republic of Komi,  Murmansk Oblast, Novgorod Oblast and and Pskov Oblast) (eng)
"Tax" (Russian Custom Duties) – here you can download a program called "Tax" including the Harmonized Commodity Description and Code System for Foreign Trade of the Russian Federation. The program contains rates of import and export duties, as well as texts of legal acts and regulating documents of the Russian Federation referring to the procedure of paying excises and the value added tax (eng)
TKS.ru – most comprehensive database for everybody dealing with Russian customs; all information on-line: news, laws, procedures, dictionary, forms, calculators, brokers etc. But… only in Russian (rus)
Viritual Custom House: all about customs in the Russian Federation – association established by Unified international Network of Customs Bonded Warehouses, giving information about Russian customs and warehouse services (eng)

For individuals
For travelling to and from Norway – good to know what to take out and in, also from your own country. Information from Norwegian Customs Service.
Customs Declaration Form – check how the Russian Customs Declaration Form looks like (eng)
Russian Money, Custom and Cost - Russian Visa Service – customs for private travellers, Lost Customs Form, What You Can Bring In, What You Can Take Out, Currency, Exchange Rates, Costs and others (eng).
Custom regulations – information for individuals: how to fill in the customs declaration; duties and others (eng)

Companies
Pepeliaev, Goltsblat & Partners - Russian law company dealing among others with customs related cases, office in Moscow and St.Petersburg (eng)
Targo Group – company providing consulting services, develops and carries out individual customs, logistics, investment, and leasing projects. It is all-Russia customs broker and carries  customs clearance in the Moscow Eastern and Noginsk customs’ area (eng/rus).
Russian Customs Broker – the company provides Customs clearance of export/import goods; Freight forwarding; Foreign trade consulting (eng/rus)
Customs checks in Russia – St. Petersburg Private Investigation: Your cargo has been lost? Your partners are telling you that your load was arrested by Russian customs? The company can find out what is going on there (eng/rus).