ANO Digital Economy Demands Russian Taxes From Chinese Marketplaces

The lobby group ANO Digital Economy, alongside local online retailers, has released a joint report demanding immediate government action against foreign platforms. The local commercial players are deeply offended that foreign online platforms are operating in Russia without paying VAT, verifying sellers, or taking responsibility for bad products.

Cross-border trade hit over 430 billion rubles in 2025 and is rapidly speeding toward the 1-trillion mark. Local businesses, suffocating under their own tax burdens, are watching this massive pile of cash sail directly to China without a single kopeck stopping in the state treasury. To fix this, the lobby wants to enforce strict 'landing' laws.

This proposed regulatory leash includes forcing foreign platforms to register local legal entities, set up customer service departments, and contribute to a special consumer insurance fund. While localized giants like AliExpress are already safe because they play ball, other aggressive Chinese sellers are right in the crosshairs. Some of these rules are already crawling through parliament under bill number 959244–8, set to kick in on October 1, 2026. Interestingly, the country's biggest local player, Wildberries, quietly backed out of the document, stating that not all of these desperate ideas align with their own corporate plans.

It turns out that building a closed-loop domestic economy is all fun and games until the neighbor's infinitely cheaper plastic trinkets completely bypass the local tax collector. Trying to regulate the unstoppable flow of cheap consumer goods might just leave local shoppers with empty shelves and even emptier wallets.