The state Duma approved in the first reading the online sale of wine through the “Mail of Russia”

The state Duma at the plenary session on November 11 adopted in the first reading adopted a bill of the Ministry of Finance, providing for an experiment on online trade in wine through the “Mail of Russia”. According to the results of voting during the plenary session, 323 deputies supported the adoption of the bill, and 71 parliamentarians opposed it.

The bill provides for a temporary permit for the remote sale of wine produced from grapes grown in Russia using the infrastructure of the Russian Post. The order will be carried out through "State Services" and will require verification of age - both when placing and when receiving the order, explained during the plenary session, the head of the Ministry of Digital Services Maksut Shadayev. The period between the time of placing the order and its receipt should not be less than 24 hours. The pilot regions for the experiment are planned to make Moscow and the Moscow region.

Deputies also adopted in the first reading amendments to the bill on state regulation of the production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, which allow the corresponding experiment.

The bill caused discontent from the deputies of the “CPRF” and “Fair Russia”. Chairman of the Committee on Family, Women and Children Nina Ostanina (CPRF) during the discussion of the document in the lower house also said that the government of the Moscow region opposed such an experiment.

Online alcohol trading has been banned in Russia since 2007. Since then, authorities have repeatedly discussed the possibility of partially lifting the ban. Discussion of this issue reached the Supreme Court in 2011, but the ban was recognized as legitimate. In 2014, Rosalkogolregulation and other relevant agencies at a meeting with former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev were instructed to study whether it is advisable to lift the ban on retail sales of alcohol on the Internet, Kommersant wrote, citing sources.

After the Ministry of Finance in 2023 submitted its bill to the State Duma, a similar legislative initiative was sent to the government by member of the Federation Council Andrei Klishas. In the document, the senator proposed to allow the online sale of alcohol if there is a license to retail such drinks. The sites of sellers were planned to be included in a special register, the order of which would be determined by Rosalkogoltabakcontrol. The Ministry of Finance supported the concept of the document, but left a number of comments to it, after which the senator withdrew the document from the White House, Vedomosti wrote with reference to sources.

In September 2025, RBC, citing sources, wrote that the government plan for a pilot project for online wine sales proposed to start the experiment in August 2026. The experiment was also planned to include the delivery of energy. A source familiar with the situation added that the authorities are looking at this experiment as a way to combat the gray market for the remote sale of alcohol, and the timing of its implementation is likely to “shift to the right.” Already on the results of the experiment, the authorities will be able to consider whether it is possible to expand this method of sale to the entire list of alcoholic and tobacco products.

The text of the plan indicated that before the start it is necessary to integrate the infrastructure of online delivery with USAIS (system of accounting of production and turnover of alcoholic beverages). The office of former Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Grigorenko then specified that some online platforms have already confirmed their readiness to test biometrics for age verification.