Letters in Russia have to be sorted manually due to sanctions

The reason, for which it takes more than a month to deliver letters inside Russia, even within one region of the country, is related to sanctions that Western countries imposed against Russia after the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine.

According to Alan Kozenov, Deputy Director General of Russian Post, imported logistics equipment in sorting centers may often break down or can be shut down  by manufacturers remotely. To crown it all, spare parts are difficult to find. Since it is not always possible to replace such equipment with domestic alternatives, postal employees are often forced to sort mail by hand, the top manager complained.

For example, standard correspondence sorting equipment is currently out of service at largest sorting center in Podolsk, near Moscow, which handles mail from Central Russia.

While repair works continue, employees are working in multiple shifts to manually process letters. There is no timeline yet for the restoration of automated sorting.

Details

Russian Post ( Russian: Почта России, Pochta Rossii) is an Aktsionernoye Obschestvo (AO, private limited company) which is the national postal operator of Russia. The company is responsible for the delivery of mail in Russia, and the issuing of postage stamps. Russian Post employs about 390,000 people and has over 42,000 post offices, with its headquarters in Moscow. In 2012 the Russian Post delivered more than 2.4 billion pieces of mail and accounted for more than 54 million parcels and more than 100 million in remittances. In March 2013 a presidential decree signed by President Vladimir Putin included the Russian Post in a list of so-called strategic enterprises. Russian Post owns 49.99% of the "Pochta Bank" (formerly Leto-Bank). Postal services in Crimea are handled by a separate company, Post of Crimea.