323 deputies voted for the bill, 71 against. The initiative was prepared by the Ministry of Finance: it provides for ordering wine through a special Russian Post website and receiving the product at service branches.
Age verification is proposed when placing the order and when receiving it, including through the Gosuslugi service, as the head of the Ministry of Digital Development, Maksut Shadayev, explained at the session. The text of the bill also establishes a period of at least 24 hours between placing and issuing the order; State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said this should rule out spontaneous alcohol purchases.
The experiment, according to the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Maxim Topilin, is needed to support small Russian wineries. He said that large producers are already present on store shelves, while small players find it difficult to enter retail chains because of logistics; in Russia, he said, there are about 200 small wineries.
The bill also states that the experiment may include not only wines made from Russian grapes, but also products made from grapes grown in EAEU member countries, that is, in Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The government will be able to expand the number of pilot regions, but Volodin separately emphasized that for the State Duma it is important not to extend the project to marketplaces.
The Communist Party and A Just Russia factions opposed the initiative. Nina Ostanina spoke about risks for Russian winemakers and the “alcoholization” of society, while Marina Kim said that the current version of the bill does not guarantee child protection; Ostanina also claimed that the authorities of 40 regions surveyed by deputies spoke against the experiment, including Moscow and the Moscow Region.
At the session, Russian Post CEO Mikhail Volkov said that the company is ready for the experiment and has already worked with Rosalkogoltabakkontrol on integrating traceability systems, and has also prepared storage and delivery capacity. Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut said that the ministry's position is to leave the project with Russian Post; deputies also adopted in the first reading a companion bill with amendments that allow such an experiment to be conducted. Volodin asked Deputy Finance Minister Alexey Sazanov to present by the second reading the official position of the Moscow city and regional governments on the project.
