Most people arrive at this question expecting a flat no, and the flat no is only half right. The two large American couriers have both stood down from Russia and say so on their own pages. The postal lane never closed: Russia is absent from the Postal Service's suspension list, which named thirteen countries on 2026-08-07. What the mail will carry, though, is smaller than almost anywhere else. All three sources were read on 2026-08-07.
44 lb and 42 inches on the ordinary parcel product. The constraint here is the box, not the border.
Three pages answer the question and they do not agree, which is exactly why it is worth setting them side by side rather than trusting a summary. Two of the three are carriers describing their own withdrawal. The third is the postal operator, and it is silent about Russia in a place where silence means the lane is open.
| Operator | What its own page says | Where it says it |
|---|---|---|
| United States Postal Service | Russia does not appear anywhere on the international service alerts page. Thirteen destinations are listed as having acceptance suspended for want of transportation and Russia is not among them; the European entry on that list is Belarus. | International service alerts, last updated 2026-08-07 |
| FedEx | “All Russian and Belarusian FedEx International services continue to be suspended until further notice.” The notice carries an initial report date of February 24, 2022 and was last confirmed April 13, 2026. | Service alerts page |
| UPS | “UPS has suspended operations in Russia.” The sentence appears in a note about data handling on the company's Russian site rather than in a service bulletin, which is a thin place to publish a withdrawal, but it is the company's own page. | UPS Russia site |
So the practical position on 2026-08-07 is that the post office is the route. That inverts the usual advice on a difficult destination, where the courier is the reliable option and the postal service the cheap gamble. Here the couriers have left the market and the postal channel is the one still accepting.
One consequence for anyone quoting this lane: a rate that appears for a Russian address in a shopping tool is not by itself evidence that a carrier will move the shipment. Confirm against the carrier's own alerts page before money changes hands.
Russia sets a lower ceiling on the ordinary parcel product than any other destination transcribed here, and it sets a much higher one on the express product. The gap is 26 lb and 29 inches of usable length, running in the opposite direction to the price.
| Product | Weight ceiling | Longest side | Length plus girth | Customs paperwork |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Priority Mail International | 44 lb | 42 in | 79 in | PS Form 2976-A inside PS Form 2976-E |
| Priority Mail Express International | 70 lb | 60 in | 108 in | PS Form 2976-B inside PS Form 2976-E |
| First-Class Package International Service | 4 lb | Small packet limits per the international manual | — | PS Form 2976 |
| First-Class Mail International | 3.5 oz letters and postcards, 15.994 oz large envelopes | Letter and flat limits | — | None, unless otherwise required |
| Airmail M-bags | 66 lb | One direct sack to one addressee | — | PS Form 2976 |
| “Global Express Guaranteed” | Listed as suspended since September 29, 2024 | — | — | Not applicable while suspended |
The flat-rate boxes are clipped to match. The listing caps the medium and large flat-rate boxes at 20 pounds for Russia, or the country limit if that is lower, where the same boxes carry their full domestic allowance to many destinations. A box packed to the printed capacity of the carton is over the line before it reaches the counter.
The planning move is to weigh and measure before choosing the product rather than after. A winter coat, a pair of boots and a stack of books is a routine parcel that lands near 44 lb, and once it passes that mark the only postal route left is the express product at a considerably higher price. Splitting into two lighter boxes is usually the cheaper answer, and it also keeps each one under the value allowance below. The M-bag row stays open at 66 lb, so printed matter to a single address escapes the parcel ceiling entirely.
Russia publishes a clean private-individual allowance and a formula above it, and the country listing carries both. The allowance has two dimensions, and exceeding either one of them is enough to trigger the charge.
| Term | What the listing states |
|---|---|
| Value allowance | 200 euro, duty free |
| Weight allowance | 31 kg, which is 68 pounds, duty free |
| In force since | January 1, 2020 |
| Above either limit | The greater of 15 percent of the amount exceeding 200 euro, or at least 2 euro per kilogram of the total weight of the item |
| Repeat shipments | Systematic bulk shipments are treated as commercial goods rather than personal ones |
| Inherited goods | Admitted free of duty on production of consular certificates |
Read the fourth row carefully, because the two branches behave very differently. The percentage applies only to the excess above 200 euro, so a parcel worth 250 euro attracts 15 percent of 50 euro. The per-kilogram branch applies to the total weight of the item rather than to the excess, so a heavy parcel of modest value can land on that branch instead and pay against every kilogram in the box. Dense, cheap contents are the case where the second branch bites.
The weight allowance and the postal ceiling nearly coincide. A parcel product that stops at 44 lb cannot on its own exceed a 68-pound duty-free weight, so in practice a single ordinary parcel is limited by value rather than by weight. The express product at 70 lb is the one that can cross the weight line by itself.
One line in the observations rules out an entire category of shipment, and it is the line that catches small American sellers taking an order from a Russian address. The listing states that it is prohibited to import into Russia postal items from commercial companies intended for private individuals permanently resident in Russia, excepting legacies and articles admitted for repairs or replacement.
That is not a paperwork rule and no declaration cures it. A shop mailing a customer's order to a Russian home address is describing the prohibited case. The two exceptions are narrow and specific: an inheritance, and goods going out or coming back for repair or replacement, where the listing separately notes that repair or replacement articles are exempt on a sender's declaration.
The practical reading for a business is that this lane serves personal correspondence between individuals and warranty movements, and not retail fulfillment. A private person mailing a private person remains ordinary and permitted, within the allowances above.
Two requirements on this lane fall on the sender before the parcel leaves the country, and both are unique among the destinations written up here. Neither is a postal rule.
The listing states that in alignment with United States government sanctions and the Bureau of Industry and Security, goods classed as luxury goods destined to Russia require a license and an Internal Transaction Number, and that no exemptions are allowed. The category list sits in Exhibit 533 of the international manual.
The ten-digit Schedule B number has to appear in the HS Tariff Number block on the customs declaration for each good exported, reexported or transferred to and within Russia. Six digits, which satisfy most destinations, are short here.
The listing notes that addressees generally need import licenses or permits for most goods. That is the recipient's task and it happens in Russia, so it is worth confirming before postage is bought rather than after the parcel is held.
Nothing on this page is legal advice and the sanctions position moves. Read the Bureau of Industry and Security's own current list before shipping anything that might sit in the luxury category, and treat an unfamiliar item as needing the check rather than assuming it does not.
Russia's restrictions section names cryptographic devices and equipment with a cryptographic function among the articles a private individual may only import with permission from the Russian authorities. Radioelectric and high-frequency civil devices, including built-in units and parts, are named alongside them.
The category is drawn more widely than the phrase suggests once you think about what a modern device contains. A laptop, a phone, a router, a hardware wallet and a security key all carry encryption as a normal feature. Whether a given consumer item is caught is a question for the Russian authorities and the recipient, not for a sender guessing from New Jersey, and the honest advice is to establish that before mailing rather than to find out when the parcel stops moving.
The same restrictions section closes several categories to private individuals entirely, including scrap and waste metal, precious metals and ores, unworked natural stones, eavesdropping devices, human organs and blood, radioactive materials, cultural artifacts, and plants of any kind including seeds. Bees, leeches and silkworms are admitted with veterinary certificates, which is an oddly specific opening in an otherwise closed list.
The prohibition list is long and several entries are worded in ways that reach further than an American sender would expect. These are the ones most likely to appear in an ordinary parcel.
The listing also sets out what happens when a prohibited article is found, and the outcomes differ: sometimes only the offending item is seized, sometimes the parcel goes back to origin, sometimes the whole consignment is seized. That range is a reason to check the list rather than to gamble on the mildest outcome.
Russia is served in full with a short list of exceptions, and it is worth checking an address against them because the names are unfamiliar and none of them is a large city. The listing serves all locations except Chaibucha, Yamsk, Garmanda, Gizhiga, Rep de Tchetchnya, Tachtoyamsk and Verchniyi paren. Most are settlements in the far northeast; one is a whole republic.
On extra services, Registered Mail is available for First-Class Mail International with a maximum indemnity of 40.20 United States dollars, and a return receipt is sold only alongside it. Restricted delivery, international postal money orders and international reply coupons are all listed as not available, and neither is the postal route for settling a recipient's customs charges in advance. Whatever Russian customs assesses is collected from the person at the other end.
Two of the three operators that would ordinarily quote a Russian shipment have stood down from the country, which makes any published Russian rate a thing to interrogate rather than book. A shopping tool that cheerfully returns one is telling you less than it appears to. Nothing above is a postage quote; the calculator on this site reaches between two ZIP codes and stops at the border.
If a shipment has to happen, send the weight, the dimensions, the contents and the destination address through freight review and a person will say what is actually movable and what it costs, including whether the contents run into the license requirement above. On this lane that conversation is worth having before the box is packed.
This is the fastest-moving destination on the site. Sanctions, carrier positions and postal acceptance have all changed more than once since 2022, and every figure above is what those five pages carried on 2026-08-07. Read them again on the day you ship.
By post, yes. Russia does not appear on the Postal Service's list of destinations with international mail acceptance suspended, which named thirteen countries when the page was last updated on 2026-08-07. The two large American couriers answer differently: FedEx states its Russian services remain suspended, and UPS states it has suspended operations in Russia.
44 lb on Priority Mail International, the lowest parcel ceiling on any destination written up here, against 70 lb on the express product. The ordinary parcel also stops at 42 inches on the longest side and 79 inches for length plus girth.
Nothing up to 200 euro in value and 31 kg in weight, a private-individual allowance set on 1 January 2020. Past either line the charge is the greater of 15 percent of the amount exceeding 200 euro, or at least 2 euro per kilogram of the total weight of the item.
No. The country listing states that postal items from commercial companies intended for private individuals permanently resident in Russia are prohibited on import, with legacies and articles admitted for repair or replacement excepted.
Cryptographic devices and equipment with a cryptographic function are on the restricted list and need permission from the Russian authorities even for personal use. Radioelectric and high-frequency civil devices, including parts and built-in units, sit in the same section.