Starting Tuesday, Russians will be able to order products online from a range of famous U.S. and European brands, including Nike, Zara and H&M, according to an announcement from Russia’s postal service reported by state news agency TASS.
It will be possible to purchase Western goods directly on the companies’ websites, using either foreign or Russian bank cards. In the latter case, Post Global, a Hong-Kong based company presented as a partner of Russian Post, has offered to buy the products directly for an extra fee, as a way of bypassing Western sanctions on Russian banks.
These purchases will then be stored for up to three months in a German or American warehouse operated by Post Global before being shipped to Russia, where they will be delivered within a few weeks “even to the most remote regions.”
Post Global’s website invites Russian customers “to visit the most popular online stores in America and Europe,” where “millions of products, hundreds of thousands of brands and non-stop discounts are waiting for [them].”
These include anything from cosmetics, Lego sets and iPhones to auto parts, on which Russia’s car industry is heavily reliant.
Since the beginning of the war in February, hundreds of Western companies — including Nike and Swedish retail giant H&M — have curtailed or shut down operations in Russia. The various rounds of banking and trade sanctions imposed by the Western bloc on Russia have made it increasingly hard, and often impossible, for Russian consumers to access certain goods.
Nike, Zara, H&M and Lego could not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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