Table A6.

Overview of most important law changes addressing unrecorded alcohol since 2009. Source: Consultant.ru.

2012	Government Decree No. 775 “On Excise Stamps for the Marking of Alcohol Products” establishes new safety requirements for excise stamps and introduced their new generation. The previous generation of excise stamps (introduced in December 2005) is produced until November 2012 and their use is allowed until September 2016.
2016	The Federal Service for Alcohol Market Regulation is subordinated to the Ministry of Finance, transferring to it the functions of alcohol policy development and implementation. EGAIS is implemented for the wholesale trade of alcoholic beverages for retail sale in July 2016. Alcohol outlets must be equipped with special cash registers that are linked to the servers of the Service for Alcohol Market Regulation and Quick Response (QR) codes are introduced on sale receipts that track the sold product from the producer to the retail point-of-sale.
2017	Amendments to the Federal Law No. 171 “On State Regulation of Production and Turnover of Ethyl Alcohol” are adopted. The new version prohibits the sale of alcohol-containing cosmetic products through vending machines as well as distribution of information and advertisement of sellers of alcoholic products on the Internet (to curb the illegal internet trade of alcohol). The articles “Illicit production and (or) turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcohol, and alcohol-containing products”, and “Illegal retail sale of alcohol and alcohol-containing food products” are added to the Criminal Code of Russia, introducing harsh penalties for illegal alcohol production as well as forging of alcohol excise stamps/selling and using counterfeit stamps. Punishments range from fines to imprisonment, depending on the severity of the offense and the harm caused to others. Amendments to the Federal Law No. 171 are adopted. The federal special stamp and the excise stamp for the labelling of alcoholic products must now contain a two-dimensional barcode (graphic information in coded form) printed by the manufacturer of the indicated brands and must also contain the EGAIS identifier in coded form.
2018	A government decree introduced a ban on the sale of non-beverage alcoholic products with an ABV > 28% at a lower price than the established minimum retail price for vodka and spirits, to discourage their misuse as surrogates.