Russian Post Service (Pochta) and Delivery Services

Author: Dimitry Paranyushkin (on 02 Oct 2019)
If you need to send something from or within Russia there are several options to choose from: the government-owned Russian Post (Pochta), the local courier companies, and the international delivery services. Below we describe each of them in detail:
 

The Russian Post

The Russian postal service (called Pochta or Почта) is much more reliable and faster than it used to be back in the day. It costs about €0.7 to send a letter or a postcard to EU or USA (will take about 1-2 weeks) or €3 for a faster 1-week service with a tracking number. Sending a 1 kg parcel will cost about €10 within Russia and about €20 abroad. 
 
The Russian Post also offers a faster premium courier service called EMS (takes up to 5 working days) for about €20-€30 for letters and parcels, which is more copetitive than courier companies.
 
The offices of the Russian Post can be found everywhere in Russia, even in small villages. Just ask where the “Pochta” (Почта) is. 
 
The main address in Moscow is Tsentralny Telegraph: Tverskaya str., 7 (metro Okhotny Ryad - red line)
In St. Petersburg: Pochtapskaya str., 9 (metro Nevsky prospekt) Phone: +7 (812) 312-8302
Online: www.pochta.ru
 
 

Delivery Services in Russia

If you need to deliver something within the same  city or inside Russia and you want to make sure it arrives fast and on time, you're better off using one of the private delivery companies. 
 
For deliveries within the same city, like Moscow or St. Petersburg, you can install an iPhone / Android App Yandex Taxi or Dostavista.
The first one, Yandex Taxi, has an English interface and is basically proposing you to pay the full taxi fare and let the taxi driver make your delivery. As the taxi prices in Russia are low, you'll end up paying about €5 to deliver something within the city center and about €10-€15 to the suburbs.
The second app, Dostavista, is a bit slower because they use real couriers, so you need to wait for them to come and pick up your stuff, but it's also cheaper: you'll end up paying about €3-€5 for the same-day delivery.
 
If you need to deliver something to another city in Russia, we recommend using Delovye Linii (Деловые Линии). This delivery service is great: using their website you can arrange door-to-door pick-up and delivery. Sending a 1 kg shoe-box size parcel from Moscow to St. Petersburg (700 km) will cost you about €15 door-to-door or €7 if you bring it to their depot yourself and have someone pick it up in their local depot as well. The delivery takes about 2 days max. So it's a good option. Their website has all the info — www.dellin.ru — and no, they did not pay us for this recommendation :) 
 
A Russian postbox / Photo by Alexey Ivanov / alexyv@flickr
 

Sending Something from Russia Abroad

If you need to send something abroad, you can use the Russian Post or their premium EMS courier. But it will end up with your local post in the country of destination. So if you want something a bit more reliable, you might want to use one of the established courier services, even though they often suck too. Our experience is that UPS is the most cooperative one, so if you have a choice, use them.

If you are in St. Petersburg, you might use one of the local companies who send post through Finland. They first deliver it there and then use the local post service, so that it's faster and cheaper than couriers. 

DHL
They have offices alll over Russia and provide world delivery as well as Russian delivery services. Express delivery of the letter to Europe from Russia costs about 50 US$, within Russia about 30 US$.
Moscow: 1st Tverskaya Yamskaya str, 11 (metro Belorusskaya – circle line), phone: +7 (495) 250-4019
Saint Petersburg: Nevsky prospekt, 34 , 2-nd floor, phone: +7 (812) 318-4472
Internet: http://www.dhl.ru

FedEx
Offices in the big cities in Russia. The express delivery of the envelope to USA or Europe is about 40 US$.
Moscow: Mokhovaya str., 15, Hotel National Business Cente, phone: +7 (495) 234-3400
Saint Petersburg: Yuri Gagariin prospekt, 34, phone: +7 (812) 379-9040
Internet: http://www.fedex.com/ru/

TNT
Many offices in Russia, espress delivery to Europe for 50 US$.
Moscow: Svobody str., 31, phone: +7 (495) 797-2777
St.Petersburg: Sofiyskaya str., 14, phone: +7 (812) 118-3330
Internet: http://www.tnt.ru/

UPS
Of all the courier deliveries we tried, this one seems to be the fastest, if you send your correspondence from Moscow (arrives in 24 hours).
Moscow: Bol. Tishinky blvrd., 8, phone: +7 (495) 961-2211
Internet: http://www.ups.com/content/ru/en/index.jsx

 

 

 


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