The all-Russian public organization of small and medium-sized businesses “Opora Rossii” asked Rosalkogolregulirovanie to legalize the sale of alcohol via the Internet, as well as to tighten the punishment up to criminal for those who do this without a license, the Vedomosti newspaper reported on Wednesday, August 26, citing a representative organizations.

The corresponding letter to the department was also signed by the heads of the Union of Alcohol Producers, the Committee of Alcohol Producers, the Union of Winegrowers and Winemakers of Russia and the community of producers of branded trademarks “Rusbrand”.

The Rosalkogolregulirovanie told the newspaper that the service, in principle, does not rule out the possibility of allowing the sale of alcohol via the Internet. A representative of the regulator noted that the initiative of entrepreneurs can be implemented if there is an effective mechanism for regulating the remote sale of alcoholic beverages.

The publication recalls that distance selling of alcohol is prohibited by government decree of 2007. In April 2014, a group of deputies introduced amendments to the State Duma prohibiting the retail sale of alcohol remotely.

Then the government rejected them and proposed creating a list of online sites with the right to sell alcohol. According to the government, the corresponding permit can only be obtained by an organization that has a license to sell alcohol and an authorized capital of at least 10 million rubles.

“Opora Rossii” has already written a letter to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev with a similar request. The head of government instructed Rosalkogolregulirovanie to look into the issue, and the service asked the business community to submit proposals that could be taken into account when finalizing the bill.

In a new letter, entrepreneurs supported the government's proposals to create a registry of domain names of organizations that have a license to retail alcohol via the Internet. Thus, only companies that have a license to produce or wholesale alcohol and have paid the fee will be able to obtain licenses, the letter states.

Entrepreneurs asked to allow online sales of alcohol