Due to the Russian attack on Ukraine and the consequent mass sanctions against the aggressor, many major electronics suppliers left the Russian market, including Apple, ASUS, Dell, Samsung and other companies. As a result, retailers began to smuggle electronics into Russia, but this creates additional difficulties.

New equipment is disassembled into spare parts

Russian repair services are forced to dismantle new devices and those that are already in use. This leads to an increase in repair costs, which causes an increase in prices for ordinary consumers.

The fact is that when equipment manufacturers officially appeared on the Russian market, they imported not only devices, but also spare parts for their repair. Now the equipment enters Russia unofficially, bypassing legal suppliers. This means that in Russia there are less and less new spare parts for repairs, because there is no new material, and the “gray” equipment itself is much more expensive.

Previously, the costs and organization of service were borne by manufacturers, but now everything passed “on the shoulders” of distributors importing smuggling equipment (in Russia this is called “parallel import”).

Against this background, the warranty period is growing. To repair defective equipment imported for “parallel import”, it must either be sent to the countries of purchase, or repaired yourself by service centers, which now have to disassemble new and used devices.

Legalization of “gray” imports

Russia actually legalized the import of “gray” equipment and eliminated criminal liability for smuggling. This has caused the cost of computer equipment and electronics for the end user to start increasing by 20% to 50%.

And Russia has serious problems with some categories of goods. These include premium home appliances, flagship smartphones, smartwatches, game consoles and other devices.