Every year thousands of fairs are organized in the Russian Federation. Taking into consideration that around 400 fairs are organized only in Moscow, the importance of fairs in the entry to the market becomes quite obvious. Despite this, the abundance in the number of fairs creates an obstacle for the companies in finding the right fair.  

In the country where the wholesaler, distributor companies have not institutionalized and have not sufficiently developed the retailers in the country select their goods from fairs or in show-rooms.

In the market experiencing letter of credit problems as the banking sector has not developed, exportation is made in general against cash payment of foreign currency. However, the fast increase in the consumption and the capital inadequacies of merchants being unable to finance the cash foreign currency trade is tried to be realized through seller advances, and sometimes problems are encountered for this reason.  Especially unrecorded transactions and the lack of contracts render difficult the collection of receivables to an important extent. 

Means of Access:  The geographical and climate conditions of the Russian Federation have a negative effect on the expansion of the transportation network. Although the Russian Federation has a wide transportation network the development of the transportation network varies between the regions. The land route transportation network is more developed in the central Europe region of Russia, the North East and Middle and South Urals. While in the Northern Europe and Siberia regions of Russia it is less developed.

The transportation infrastructure is not developed in the proper sense. Until the end of 1998 the length of hard surfaced roads coated with asphalt, concrete and similar is 752 thousand km. In 40 percent of the towns there are no asphalt roads, so the country has no western type highways. A motorway network is planned for Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk and Rostov. As of 1998 the Russian Federation has railways of 86 thousand kilometers long. 46.5 percent of the railways are with electricity. The cargo transportation is carried out predominantly by railways.  In passenger transportation highway transportation has an important place.  

Tax Practice:  There are three types of tax application in the Russian Federation. These are; Federal taxes, regional taxes and local taxes. Some of the taxes which are of importance for foreign companies to companies in the Russian Federation and their rates are as follows ; 

• Corporation Tax: Starting from 1 April 1999 this rate has been determined as 30 percent for the production and trade companies. For broker (intermediary) companies, banks and insurance companies the corporation tax rate 38 percent.   
  
• Personal Income Tax: With the arrangement made in August 2000 a single rate of 13 percent has been determined without making tax tranche classification.
  
• Value added tax: The subject tax rate is 20 percent this rate is applied as 10 percent for basic food and children’s materials.
  
• Sales tax: The foreign corporate entities and their branches and representative offices operating in Russia are in the scope of this tax. Being a regional tax, varies from one region to the other. While being collected as 5 percent over the cash sales of goods and services , this rate is applied as 4 percent in Moscow
  
• Asset tax (Net Asset Tax): It cannot exceed 2 percent of the tax base to be found in accordance with the net asset tax communiqué. It is determined by the legislative body of the regional administrations. Tax rate can not be determined on company basis.
  
• Social Infrastructure Development Tax: Collected from corporate entities which operate in entrepreneurship within the boundaries of Moscow. The rate is 1.5 percent over the difference between the sales price and the purchase price excluding VAT.  
  
• Road utilization tax: The rate is 2.5 percent over the difference between the sales price and the purchase price excluding VAT. It is paid as 5 per mille to the federal road fund project and 2 percent to the regional road fund project.
  
• Advertisement tax: It is calculated as 5 percent of the total advertisement charges in Moscow.  It is a local tax and the rate is determined by the local governments.

Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights : The protection of the trade mark rights in the Russian Federation through the laws  is provided according to the order  determined  by the present law or according to the international agreements of the Russian Federation. The trade mark is registered in the name of the corporate entity or the real person who is doing entrepreneurship. For the registered trademark a trade mark certificate is given. The owner of the trade mark, has the monopoly right the use the subject trade mark and to restrict its use by third parties.  No one can use a trade mark protected in the Russian Federation without receiving the permission of the owner. The registration of the trade mark is valid for 10 years and can be extended for every ten year upon demand. It is necessary to investigate whether the products that are to be sold for importation to the Russian Federation are registered in the name of another.   

Distribution and Sales Channels: The goods imported to the Russian Federation are brought to the country by the importer companies or by persons who are doing luggage trade. While the distribution in the market is made by the wholesaler companies or by small retailer companies.

In the framework of the current regulation the domestic sales have to be made in Rubles. However, in practice it is observed the institutions and stores of some units are using a virtual currency in trade (y.e.) and that they are in general expressing the prices of the goods in virtual currencies based on American Dollars (For example: Refrigerator 120 y.e y.e=dollar) In this case although the payment is made in rubles the price of the good is calculated according to that day’s Ruble/virtual currency (foreign currency) parity.

Consumer Preferences: The consumer behaviors in Russia do not show differences in general in comparison with the behavior patterns of consumers living in any other country in the world.   When the individual behavior is taken into consideration the propensity to save is not high according to its income, the propensity to consumption is high. The thing that is  new for Russia is the high influence of advertisement on the consumer.  While advertisement and presentation change the consumer propensities, promotions can have influence on sales.  

The main elements that the Russian consumer primarily takes into consideration are price and quality. While the demand to consumer goods is high. The segments with low income distribution act primarily towards meeting their needs. However, as a great variety of imported consumer goods have entered the country with the passing time,  the quality criteria stood in the front. There is an intensive interest for products of the developed countries. The country of origin prevails in the selection of goods and unfortunately there is a negative image about the goods of Turkish origin, with the effect of the luggage trade.