Mail to Russia

[JayFromTexas 69]

I know this isn't directly related to Visa matters so I hope you don't mind the question. Is it possible to mail a letter to Russia from the US, at this time?

[millefleur 5,047]

I have not heard of any direct mail services to Russia from the US that have resumed yet. If someone else here knows, please share. 

[slavaskii 886]

I can, at least, confirm that USPS and FedEx don't ship to Russia, Belarus, or Ukraine. I tried to ship a package to Belarus last week and the USPS worker was taken aback, I don't think many people try sending to Belarus but she specifically said "I don't remember this restriction." I went to FedEx the following day for something unrelated and they had a sign that said "due to conflict, we are not shipping to R/B/U."

 

I presume if you know someone in a neighboring EU country, you could ship to them and have them ship across the border. It's my understanding those mail services still work. If not, and this is a huge stretch, I recall some places still shipping by boat to Eastern Europe. There was a little Polish deli in my hometown that always had a sign saying they ship to Belarus, and when I asked them once they were like 'yeah we throw it on the boat and it gets there in a few months.' Don't ask me (a) how a boat will get to Belarus or (b) how the boat takes a few months to arrive, but when all else fails, there's that. 

Edited September 5, 2022 by slavaskii

[Simplytex 387]

On 9/3/2022 at 4:39 PM, JayFromTexas said:

I know this isn't directly related to Visa matters so I hope you don't mind the question. Is it possible to mail a letter to Russia from the US, at this time?

Right now, it's not possible. But, if you have something small/just a letter/document, I just be able to help you out ... Going to visit my wife in a third country in October, so she could take it back and mail it from within Russia. She just won't have a lot of baggage allowance, so couldn't take a large parcel

[JayFromTexas 69]

10 minutes ago, Simplytex said:

Right now, it's not possible. But, if you have something small/just a letter/document, I just be able to help you out ... Going to visit my wife in a third country in October, so she could take it back and mail it from within Russia. She just won't have a lot of baggage allowance, so couldn't take a large parcel

Wow, what a wonderful offer. It is very small and light. I accept your offer! I’ll PM you. 

[millefleur 5,047]

14 hours ago, slavaskii said:

I presume if you know someone in a neighboring EU country, you could ship to them and have them ship across the border.

So EU countries are still shipping stuff to/from Russia but we aren't? Bizarre. Seeing as how we're thousands of miles away from the conflict and all.

[Simplytex 387]

6 hours ago, millefleur said:

So EU countries are still shipping stuff to/from Russia but we aren't? Bizarre. Seeing as how we're thousands of miles away from the conflict and all.

Yep, exactly. Also, my wife can ship from Russia to the US, but I can't send the other way from the US. I was in the UK recently and was able to send her some stuff (she teaches English in her spare time, so the students love seeing things from the US/UK...)

[slavaskii 886]

7 hours ago, millefleur said:

So EU countries are still shipping stuff to/from Russia but we aren't? Bizarre. Seeing as how we're thousands of miles away from the conflict and all.

Yeah it's all very strange; random anecdote, but I think I recall seeing a Belposhta box here in my apartment complex after the war began. Honestly, the whole "we aren't shipping to R/B because of conflict" is just a nice way of them saying they don't want to mess with the sanctions regimes. I can understand an inability to ship to Ukraine (at least, the eastern half), but I'm not convinced you can't safely get a package to Vitebsk or Vladivostok. I think this is our new shipping reality.

 

Also to OP and everyone's benefit: there are many Facebook groups that are always filled with people volunteering to take packages back home with them. There's one Belarusian FB group that posts about this nearly every day - I completely forgot about it until I logged on now. Provided the package isn't too large, you can get around finding a middleman in Europe if you join one of the FB groups and inquire there.

[mendeleev 68]

On 9/5/2022 at 11:28 AM, millefleur said:

So EU countries are still shipping stuff to/from Russia but we aren't? Bizarre. Seeing as how we're thousands of miles away from the conflict and all.

My son, who lives in Norway, has intermediated two gift parcels we sent our granddaughters in Novosibirsk.  I don't understand the path from Norway to Russia -- it could literally be by land through the top of lapland.  It is a pain in the b**t for my son who does it for us but doesn't like to do it.  Partly this is because the Norway post is kinda screwed up and doesn't know how their own post system goes to Russia nowadays and, more than once, has put the wrong labels onto parcels he sends -- so they eventually come back to him.  Express mail from Norway is a no-go.  But slow ground shipments do work and they also provide tracking numbers.  But almost all Norwegian international parcel mail is Express .... so the postal employees get confused.

 

The US postal services says they cannot send parcels to Russia because there is no carrier to get them there.  The last three parcels I sent to Russia in '20 and '21 using USPS went from JFK to Dubai to Moscow to Novosibirsk.  Back in the 'teens, USPS didn't use the Dubai route from JFK but sent parcels straight to Sheremetyevo in Moscow.  Dubai (both Emirates and FlyDubai) still fly from Dubai to Moscow.  So this excuse by USPS seems a bit fact-free.  But this is the way life is nowadays.