Duty-free shops will open in Russia, where only diplomats, employees of international organizations and their families will be able to buy goods. Such Duty Free shops will open in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The relevant document has been published on the Official Portal of Legal Information, Parlamentskaya Gazeta noted. The decision will come into force on 27 August.
It will be possible to purchase goods for rubles, dollars or euros upon presentation of documents confirming the official position.
The assortment of stores for diplomats will be determined by their owners, however, it is specified that we are talking only about retail trade in products that fall under the customs duty-free procedure – these are alcohol, tobacco products, perfumes and cosmetics, confectionery, jewelry, smartphones, watches.
The network will be owned by a Russian company, which will be opened by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with a co-founder selected through an open competition, and customs officers will control the stores.
Parlamentskaya Gazeta finds an analogue of future retail outlets in the Beryozka chain that existed in the USSR. There, diplomats, sailors and the military, whose units were stationed abroad, sold food, clothing and equipment for foreign currency.
In the USSR, there was a network of branded retail stores "Beryozka", in which foreigners, diplomatic, military and technical specialists, as well as members of their families, could buy food and consumer goods for foreign currency.
Beryozka shops worked in Moscow, Leningrad, the capitals of the Union republics, large regional centers and in some port and resort cities – Sochi, Sevastopol, Volgograd, Yalta and others.