[Update] Ozon sellers get 12-month deferral on taxes and contribution…

Vladimir Putin visited the Chebarkul range in the Chelyabinsk region on 2 October to observe the main stage of the Centre-2026 strategic command and staff exercise. He said the drills main goal is to improve the ability of headquarters at all levels to command troops when repelling external aggression, with participants fielding new weapons and drawing on the experience of the special military operation. The Defence Ministry said more than 47,000 servicemen are involved across 11 ranges and the Caspian Sea area; Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, Deputy Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov and Ground Forces Commander Andrei Mordvichev reported to the president.

On 2 October the Federation Council held the first plenary session of its autumn sitting (its 619th), with 19 items on the agenda, and approved five laws: agreements with Belarus on transferring funds under enforcement documents and with India on simplifying temporary labour activity, protocols on EAEU medical devices and on medical care for Russians permanently resident in Abkhazia, and the Russian-Myanmar agreement on the peaceful exploration and use of outer space. During government hour Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak presented the socio-economic development forecast for 2027 and the 2028-2029 planning period, while Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov spoke about drone technology development using the example of a cluster in the Tomsk region.

The Russian Justice Ministry has drafted a departmental document proposing that information submitted by foreign agents be placed in their case files electronically rather than on paper. The document notes that since 1 September 2026 foreign agents have filed their reports electronically through forms on the ministry website, making paper filing redundant. The underlying law has already entered into force.

The G7 said in a statement on 2 October that it will release up to 100 million barrels of oil and diesel from strategic reserves over the next four months to contain prices, with a substantial release of diesel in the next 20 days and further supply options to be discussed at the IEA in coming days as needed. The statement says the group will maintain sanctions against Russia. US President Donald Trump said the process would begin immediately, while French President Emmanuel Macron said the decision is meant to halt the rise in fuel prices.

US President Donald Trump said on 2 October that Washington does not plan to ban diesel exports, adding that it never intended to. A day earlier US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said European countries have obligations to supply diesel to the world market and must meet them immediately. On 2 October French President Emmanuel Macron announced that G7 countries will release up to 100 million barrels of oil and petroleum products over four months.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 2 October, answering an Interfax question, that Russia is open to dialogue on Black Sea security with all countries but that no concrete talks on bilateral agreements are under way. He noted that President Vladimir Putin had addressed the issue the previous day at the plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that Russia is negotiating with India, Egypt and Turkey on proposals for safe shipping in the Black Sea that may include bilateral agreements.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on 2 October that Moscow welcomes the withdrawal of US and allied troops from Iraq, noting that this fulfils the decision taken by the Iraqi parliament in January 2020. She said the withdrawal shows that the Iraqi army and security structures are capable of independently handling national defence and security, and said Moscow expects Iraq to strengthen ties with its neighbours, reiterating the Russian concept of collective security in the Persian Gulf zone.

The Bank of Russia set the official dollar rate effective 3 October at 83.48 roubles, up 0.24; the euro fell 0.21 to 94.32 roubles and the yuan rose 0.03 to 12.43 roubles. The rates in force on 2 October were 83.25 roubles per dollar, 94.53 per euro and 12.40 per yuan, marking a third consecutive working day with the dollar near 83 roubles. In early September the dollar traded in the 86-87 rouble range, settling near 84 from 11 September.

Rosstat published its Q2 2026 GDP use report on 2 October: final consumption expenditure accounted for 73.1% of GDP, up from 72.8% a year earlier, with the household share rising to 53.1% from 52.3% and the government share falling to 19.5% from 20.0%, while non-profit institutions serving households stayed at 0.5%. Gross capital formation fell to 23.3% from 25.2% (fixed capital 20.5% versus 21.2%, inventory change 2.8% versus 4.0%), and net exports rose to 3.6% from 2.0%. Rosstat confirmed GDP growth of 1.3% year on year after a 0.2% contraction in Q1, with first-half growth of 0.6%.

The Russian Finance Ministry press service said on 2 October that some ministry employees received their salaries in digital roubles for the first time on 1 October, having opened digital rouble accounts on the Bank of Russia platform. The digital rouble is the third form of the national currency, issued by the central bank alongside cash and non-cash money. A pilot ran from mid-August 2023, and a large-scale rollout began on 1 September 2025, with major banks and large retailers offering customers digital currency operations.

The Ministry of Science and Higher Education has drafted a government decree under which SVO participants and their children may enrol on a paid basis regardless of the cap on paid places in fields with regulated intake; the draft also sets a single schedule for universities to publish paid-place information. The ministry will set caps no later than 15 March and universities must publish information no later than 15 April. The ministry said 56,870 budget places were allocated under the separate quota for the 2026/27 academic year, with 41,811 SVO participants and their children admitted; the quota is at least 10% of total budget places.

The Russian Justice Ministry updated the foreign agent list on 2 October, adding Boris Nemtsov daughter Zhanna Nemtsova, public figure Rustam Khuazhev and the information resources Reanimation and Navalny Team. The ministry said both individuals disseminated inaccurate information about decisions and policies of Russian authorities, opposed the military operation in Ukraine and distributed foreign agent materials, and both live outside Russia. It said the Navalny Team resource is run from abroad by an organisation listed as terrorist and its owner is a registered foreign agent. The Centre for Work on the Problem of Violence was removed from the register after the organisation was liquidated.

Law enforcement agencies said on 2 October that a prisoner being escorted attacked a convoy guard on the Vladikavkaz-Adler train in Kabardino-Balkaria and inflicted fatal injuries, killing an FSIN officer. Officials stressed that media reports of a prison riot and hostage-taking are untrue and that no civilians were hurt. RIA Novosti reported that the attacker was killed by the FSIN guard detail. Interfax noted that no official FSIN comment was available at the time of publication. Earlier reports had described a riot on the train with one officer killed and three wounded.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on 2 October that air defence units shot down 209 Ukrainian fixed-wing drones over 14 regions and one sea area during the day. Russian forces also struck the road-and-rail bridge across the Dnieper in Kyiv, which the ministry said is used to move troops and deliver military cargo to Ukrainian units in the Donbass, and hit the Kyivska electrical substation in Nalivaykovka. According to a separate Vedomosti report, duty air defence assets destroyed 646 Ukrainian drones over 14 regions and two sea areas overnight into 2 October.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, speaking in the Federation Council on 2 October, said Ukrainian forces tried to strike four refineries in Russia overnight: we effectively repelled all attacks on our enterprises, and process equipment was not damaged. He said damage is being assessed at only one plant and that the government is doing everything to supply the domestic fuel market. Defence Ministry data put the number of Ukrainian drones destroyed overnight into 2 October at 646 across 14 Russian regions and two sea areas.

The St Petersburg branch of the Emergencies Ministry said the fire at the historic Miller mansion on Isaakiyevskaya Square was contained at 00:40 on 2 October and its rank lowered, with 165 personnel and 37 vehicles deployed. Later that evening Vedomosti and Interfax reported the fire fully extinguished. The blaze in the unused building began at 20:11 on 1 October and reached 2,000 square metres; the owner promised to restore the property. The building is a cultural heritage site that had already been earmarked for restoration.

The Industry and Trade Ministry has posted a tender on the state procurement website for development work to increase the service life and widen the operating envelope of the VK-650V turboshaft engine, with a maximum contract price of 1.96 billion roubles and a deadline of November 2027. The goal is a domestic 500-600 hp engine for the Ansat and Ka-226T helicopters; the documentation notes Russia currently has no engines in that class, with the market covered only by the 2,000-3,500 hp segment. Development began in 2019 using United Engine Corporation funds to replace Safran Arrius 1A on the Ka-226T and Pratt & Whitney PW207K on the Ansat-M. Removing operating restrictions and certifying the helicopters is planned for 2027.

Northern Capital Gateway, the operator of St Petersburg Pulkovo Airport, said the airport handled 15.6 million passengers in January-September 2026 versus 15.9 million in the same period of 2025, a 2% decline. International traffic rose 8% to 3.92 million passengers: Turkey up 11% at 1.41 million, Egypt up 1.5-fold at 344,000, China up 28% at 339,000, Kazakhstan up 33% at 129,000, Tunisia up 25% at 34,000 and Serbia up 12% at 70,000. Pulkovo handled 20.8 million passengers in 2025, including 15.9 million domestic and 4.9 million international.

The Novgorod State Museum-Reserve told Interfax that the Millennium of Russia monument in the Novgorod Kremlin will be restored at a cost of about 300 million roubles, with work lasting nearly two years. The previous restoration was in 2021, when specialists entered the monument through a hatch in the pedestal and found stalactites formed by rainwater ingress, internal humidity of about 100%, and graffiti left by workers since 1874, the earliest by a painter that year. The monument was unveiled on 8 September 1862; it stands about 16 metres high, is about 9 metres in diameter and weighs 65.5 tonnes. Its authors were Mikhail Mikeshin, Ivan Schroeder and Viktor Hartmann.

Producer Vadim Byrkin said at the Organising Shoots in the Far East: Opportunities and Constraints panel of the 3rd Far Eastern Film Awards that scenes for the Russian-Chinese film Black Silk were shot in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Hunan province, including a flight between the rock pillars, a first for Russian cinema. The Zhangjiajie landscape inspired the settings of Avatar. Black Silk is the sequel to the 2025 historical detective film Red Silk, set in 1930s Shanghai and centred on a cargo codenamed Black Silk pursued by agents of several countries. It is due for release in 2027.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a government decree supporting entrepreneurs hit by drone attacks on facilities of Ozon operating company Internet Resheniya. Affected sellers may defer for 12 months VAT (excluding import VAT), profit tax, the simplified-tax-system levy, the professional income tax and personal income tax for sole traders, plus insurance contributions and advance payments due between August 2026 and July 2027; the debt is repaid in equal monthly instalments over the following year. On-site tax audits and contribution compliance audits are suspended until end-2026, and deadlines for payment demands and recovery decisions are extended by six months. The measures cover legal entities and sole traders holding a valid contract with Ozon operating company and meeting either condition: registered after December 2025, or damage exceeding 5% of annual revenue; losses across both RVB (Wildberries) and Ozon facilities can be aggregated. The deferral is granted automatically from platform-submitted registers, with no separate application. This follows up on 22 September reporting that the Finance Ministry was considering extending the Wildberries scheme to Ozon.

The press service of the combined Wildberries & Russ (RWB) said that referring, in the amendments to Article 378.2 of the Tax Code, to order pickup and drop-off points as logistics infrastructure of a specific intermediary digital platform operator is "excessive and conceptually wrong". The company argues the article sets tax criteria from the characteristics and actual use of the property, not from who operates it: it should not matter whether a pickup point is owned or used by a digital platform operator, a commercial carrier, a logistics company or any other party — if the premise is actually used to accept and issue orders, its functional purpose is unchanged.

Kyrgyz Prime Minister Adylbek Kasymaliev, at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting in Minsk, said physical barriers persist at the union internal borders: for a small agricultural producer a one-day delay can mean spoiled goods or a complete halt to operations. He called for gradually unblocking bottlenecks, coordinated development of border crossing points and joined-up transport infrastructure. He also proposed merging navigation seals, electronic waybills, traceability and marking tools and the conformity assessment system into a single digital loop, so that control moves online and physical inspection becomes an exception. No implementation timeline was given.

The government submitted Tax Code amendments to the State Duma as part of the budget package, raising the benchmark domestic fuel prices used in the damper calculation for 2027-2029: AI-92 gasoline from 64,200 to 66,350 rubles per tonne in 2027, 69,000 in 2028 and 71,750 in 2029; diesel from 60,750 to 62,800 in 2027, 65,300 in 2028 and 67,900 in 2029; jet fuel from 70,000 to 71,650 in 2027. A higher benchmark narrows the gap with export prices and cuts payouts: at coefficients of 0.68 (gasoline) and 0.65 (diesel), the estimated damper value falls by roughly 1,460 rubles per tonne of gasoline and 1,330 rubles per tonne of diesel in 2027. The zero-payout thresholds rise accordingly, to 79,620 rubles per tonne for gasoline and 81,640 for diesel in 2027. Effective 1 January 2027 if adopted. Indirect impact on marketplace sellers via long-haul and last-mile delivery costs.

The government submitted Tax Code amendments to the State Duma (bill No. 617-9, part of the budget package) proposing to add marketplace order pickup and drop-off points to the list of properties taxed on cadastral value under Article 378.2, alongside consumer-services premises. Under current rules a building is treated as a shopping centre and taxed on cadastral value if at least 20% of its area is allocated to or actually used for the relevant purposes; if adopted, pickup-point area would count toward that 20%. The wording covers points that are logistics infrastructure of an intermediary digital platform operator; the owner may be the marketplace itself or a partner. Companies currently pay property tax on book value, which falls each year through depreciation, while cadastral value is usually closer to market, so the burden may rise. If adopted, it takes effect one month after official publication and no earlier than the first day of the next property tax period.

In the explanatory note to the 2027-2029 federal budget the government for the first time estimated revenue from the internet advertising levy: about 16 billion rubles in 2026 and 16.25 billion rubles a year in 2027-2029. The levy, set at 3% of quarterly revenue from online advertising distribution, has applied since 1 April 2025; market participants remitted 7.8 billion rubles in its first six months (Roskomnadzor estimate). It is calculated from data submitted to the Unified Internet Advertising Register (ERIR): last year companies reported placements worth 691 billion rubles, 19.5% less than in 2024. Meanwhile, according to ARIR, the Russian online advertising and promotion market grew 28% in 2025 to 1.569 trillion rubles. The levy applies to placements both on platforms and off them.

According to M.Video data provided to Kommersant, Russian vacuum cleaner sales grew 16.5% by unit in H1 2026 to 6.16 million devices, while revenue rose only 4.5% to 61.7 billion rubles. The average ticket for January-September was 12,000 rubles, 9% lower year on year, with the number of purchases up 12% (Platforma OFD data). Robot vacuums drove growth: 17% of units and 29% of value; cordless stick models 20% and 21%; canister models 17% and 13%; corded stick models 15% and 5%. Among robot vacuums, Dreame value share rose from 27% in H1 2025 to 30% in June 2026, Roborock from 11% to 19%, while Xiaomi fell from 27% to 19%. In cordless stick models Dreame held 13% and Xiaomi 10%. Online accounts for 65% of category sales; the Chinese brand share rose from 19% in 2023 to 32% in 2025 and is forecast to exceed 35% in 2026. The head of small-appliance purchasing at Citilink notes that little-known brands have taken a much larger share on marketplaces, with platforms shifting demand toward cheaper goods.

Industry and Trade Ministry data show new vehicle sales in Russia rose 5.3% year on year in January-September 2026 to 1.067 million units. Passenger cars reached 960,400 (+7.9%); light commercial vehicles fell 16.6%, trucks 8.1% and buses 7.8%. September alone fell 6.6% year on year to 127,400 vehicles, indicating the gain was built up earlier in the year and growth is now slowing. Electric cars and hybrids rose 92.6% to 98,600 units, with their share of the new-vehicle market rising from 5.1% in the first nine months of 2025 to 9.2%; Russian-built models accounted for 28.3%, or 27,900 units. Moscow leads by volume in all four segments. The article is labelled as compiled by an AI assistant.

The A7 international settlement system, hit by expanded US Treasury sanctions on 1 October, denied any dealings with Iran or terrorist organisations, calling the allegations "outright lies and slander" and stating it has never processed transactions for them or served affiliated entities; it cited a multi-layered compliance system screening all clients. A7 was set up in autumn 2024, owned by state bank PSB (49%) and businessman Ilan Shor (51%), and serves Russian exporters and importers settling with foreign partners. It has been on the US SDN list since August 2025, under UK sanctions since May 2025 and EU sanctions since July 2025. Follow-up to the 1 October item on expanded US sanctions.

The Russian Finance Ministry press service said some employees received their salaries in digital rubles for the first time on 1 October, having opened digital ruble accounts on the Central Bank platform. The digital ruble is the third form of the national currency alongside cash and non-cash money; the Central Bank piloted it from mid-August 2023 and began a large-scale rollout on 1 September 2026, with systemically important banks, major payment-service players and large retailers offering digital currency operations to clients. Banki.ru reported the same day that customers of another bank gained access to the digital ruble. For sellers this adds an official settlement form but does not yet change cross-border receipt routes.

Central Bank official rates: the set effective on coverage day 2 October was dollar 83.2454, euro 94.5252, yuan 12.4028 rubles; the bank then published rates effective 3 October, cutting the dollar by 23.85 kopecks to 83.4839 and the euro by 20.51 kopecks to 94.3201, with the yuan rising to 12.4328. On the exchange, the yuan stood at 12.497 rubles at 19:00, 8.3 kopecks above the previous close, as the ruble weakened against the yuan following cheaper oil. With Chinese markets shut for the 1-7 October holidays, activity was thin and yuan settlement resumes on 8 October. Gazprombank chief economist believes exporters pre-holiday currency sales pushed the yuan to 12.32 (strongest since late August), and post-holiday Finance Ministry purchases may rise, pressuring the ruble. The official euro rate has since 8 June been derived from the ECB euro/dollar rate at 15:30.

Rosstat data on GDP use in Q2 2026 show final consumption expenditure at 73.1% of GDP versus 72.8% a year earlier; household spending rose to 53.1% from 52.3%, government spending fell to 19.5% from 20.0%, and households-serving non-profits stayed at 0.5%. Gross accumulation fell to 23.3% from 25.2%, including fixed capital at 20.5% versus 21.2% and inventory change at 2.8% versus 4.0%; net exports rose to 3.6% from 2.0%. Rosstat confirmed Q2 GDP growth of 1.3% after a 0.2% fall in Q1, with H1 up 0.6%. The Economy Ministry raised its 2026 GDP forecast to 0.6% from 0.4% in September, while the Central Bank cut its own to 0.0-1.0% in July. A rising household consumption share alongside falling investment means consumer demand remains the main driver of online retail.

According to the FAO monthly review, the food price index stood at 136 points in September, up 2 points (1.5%) from the revised August figure and 5.8% above September 2025, but still 15.1% below the March 2022 peak. The cereal index rose 5.1% month on month and 17.2% year on year; world wheat prices gained 6.3% to their highest since August 2023, mainly due to Black Sea logistics problems that pushed importers to alternative suppliers, plus pre-sowing drought in parts of North America; maize rose 5.6% to a three-year high. The vegetable oil index rose 0.9% on the month and 18.3% year on year; the sugar index gained 6.1% on the month, a third consecutive monthly rise and the highest since April 2025. The meat index fell 1.1% and dairy 0.1% (down 19.1% year on year). The Black Sea logistics problems and Hormoz shipping uncertainty flagged in the review feed through into fuel, fertiliser and freight costs and then into import prices.