MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Parallel imports into Russia fell to an all-time low in January amounting to $1 billion, State Secretary and Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Roman Chekushov told reporters during Russian Business Week.
"In January, we had an all-time low in parallel imports, which is $1 billion. This is almost half the monthly average for 2025," Chekushov said.
He added that it is still too early to make forecasts for the entire 2026.
"January is the first month of the year, so seasonal factors may play a role. But overall, the downward trend remains unchanged," the deputy minister noted.
He recalled that during the peak months of 2022-2023, when the mechanism was first introduced, the volume of supplies through alternative channels exceeded $4 billion per month. "Now it's much lower. Therefore, we view this trend positively," Chekushov added.
Earlier, Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov said in an interview with TASS that the ministry expects a further reduction in parallel import volumes in 2026.
The parallel import mechanism has been in effect since March 2022. The government allowed the import of popular original foreign-made goods into the country without the consent of the copyright holders. Since then, the list of goods permitted for import has been updated several times. TASS is the general information partner of Russian Business Week.