Russia key market features
Russia is the biggest country in the world, with a population of more than 143 million people living in 11 time zones. It is a multinational country with more than 190 ethnic groups. It is essential to consider the diversity of cultural, regional and even climatic features while planning a communication strategy.The Russian economy is heavily dependent on natural resources, such as oil, gas and other minerals. At the same time, agriculture, manufacturing, IT sector and the defense industry are actively developing in Russia.
In 2023 and 2024, the Russian economy grew by 3.6 and 4.1%, respectively, which is higher than the expectations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The growth was due to the development of industry, retail, construction and agriculture. The public sector also played a significant role in economic growth. According to experts, a growth slowdown is expected in 2025.
Income level and access to technology in Russia vary by region, which requires a flexible approach to working with the audience. 90% of the population uses Internet, and 73% are active in social media. Therefore, digital communication channels are crucial for promoting business in the B2B segment.

Specifics of B2B customers in Russia
The Russian companies appreciate rational approach in the B2B segment. They often focus on price, quality and service level when choosing a supplier. Most big companies choose suppliers through tenders. This makes their decision-making process more formal and complex. Priority in government procurement, and sometimes in corporate procurement, is given to the Russian suppliers, especially when local analogues of foreign solutions are available in the market.Russian B2B customers expect a personalized approach and most likely focus on low-cost offers - if a competitor offers better conditions, the contract will be signed with him. The company's reputation is also important: big organizations prefer to work with trusted suppliers, so it is so important to build the right reputation.
Russia is among the most developed countries in the implementation of technologies in all areas. Moreover, corporate customers (B2B) today expect the same high service level from their suppliers that they are accustomed in everyday life as consumers (B2C).
B2B customers increasingly rely on opinions from people outside of their company, including online communities and conferences, to make purchasing decisions. This calls for building relationships with influencers, working with reviews and recommendations, and creating a great customer experience for major corporate customers who can become brand ambassadors.

The Russian Market and Regulatory Features
Economic sanctions have significantly affected the change in the Russian business environment, limiting access to foreign technologies, media resources, equipment and investments. Nevertheless, Russian consumers and corporate customers are enthusiastic about new brands, as they are constantly looking for the best solutions and offers in the market. In addition, foreign companies are traditionally associated with high quality products and services in many business segments in Russia.The ESG agenda, which is so relevant on a global level, is quite limited in Russia. Only few Russian companies actually adhere to ESG principles and implement projects in sustainable development field. These are mainly the biggest Russian companies; ESG is also part of their GR activities. This is still more of a declaration than a real practice for other companies. Starting from 2022, a lot of companies are revising their approaches to the ESG practices. The adoption of a few regulations governing ESG standards in Russia is expected in the upcoming years.
A complex and constantly changing regulatory environment is another feature of the Russian market. New laws and requirements in registration and labeling of online advertising, protection of personal data privacy significantly complicate work in Marketing Communications and PR.
Limited number of media platforms presents an additional challenge, intensifying competition for the audience's attention and space in the information field. At the same time, the content quality in existing media and their audience characteristics vary greatly. All this requires companies to take a more careful approach to choosing media channels, assessing their compliance with the set goals and planning results.

Russian Media Landscape
Social Media
In Russia and in other parts of the world, social media is a key platform for brand communication with their audiences and content distribution. In March 2022, the activities in Instagram and Facebook, owned by Meta Platforms Inc., were recognized as extremist. These social media channels were officially banned in Russia. YouTube video hosting has been operating with restrictions since summer of 2024. The main social network for B2B communications, Linkedin, has been blocked in Russia since 2016, and the X platform (ex. Twitter) is no longer available in Russia since 2022. Until recently, the content of these social media channels was accessible through VPN. In 2024, VPN was banned as well. Most of these services are already blocked in Russia, so the audience reach and engagement in these social media channels are constantly declining. All these aspects boosted the development of local platforms that took over the space from the Western competitors.The most popular social media channels in Russia today are:
- VKontakte is a leading social network in Russia. It has the widest audience reach. The platform is used for communication, publishing news, viewing content, developing communities and company corporate pages, promoting businesses and brands. In 2024, the average monthly audience in reached 92 million users. VKontakte's functionality covers almost all user needs: from creating communities and posting multimedia to integrating e-commerce tools.
- VK Video is rapidly developing and becoming one of the major platforms for video content in Russia. Integration with the VKontakte ecosystem allows users to easily create, distribute and find videos. The platform actively competes with YouTube, offering more opportunities for local authors and brands. This is where a lot of bloggers migrated to after Google turned off content monetization.
- Odnoklassniki is a popular social media platform among older audience, especially in the regions. It offers a wide range of functionality for communication, photo and video content sharing. Its advantage is the simplicity of the interface, as well as high user engagement, who actively participate in thematic communities, competitions, and exchange gifts.
- YouTube, despite significant restrictions and even the threat of complete blocking, continues to be used by Russians due to the high quality of content, access to global authors and convenient recommendation algorithms.
- RuTube is positioned as a Russian alternative to YouTube, focused on the local market. The platform is actively developing its technologies and interface. RuTube is becoming increasingly popular with brands looking for stable and accessible platforms for promotion.
- TenChat is positioned as an alternative to Linkedin, which is blocked in Russia. The B2B platform is actively used by representatives of small and medium businesses, offering tools for professional communication, finding partners and promoting services. TenChat combines functions of a social network and a business messenger, which makes it attractive for entrepreneurs. However, the main active audience of this social network are representatives of small and micro businesses, self-employed and individual entrepreneurs.
- Dzen is developing as a blog platform with a video publishing function. Most of its users are over 25 years old. Instructions, life hacks, and reviews are among popular content. The platform is focused on developing video content and attracting a young audience. However, users note that recommendations do not work correctly.

Messengers
With the transformation of the Russian media market, messengers took a significant niche in communication and became an important channel for promoting brands and interacting with the B2B customers.In Russia, Telegram is the undisputed leader among messengers, valued for its versatility: it is both a channel for distributing news and a platform for developing blogs (channels) and professional communities as well as direct communication with customers. Thanks to its privacy, convenience, and lack of strict censorship, Telegram became an indispensable application for more than 65 million Russians. It is used by thousands of companies and brands. Both big media and expert channels and industry chats for interacting with the audience are popular here.
To promote channels in Telegram, the following tools are available: cross-posting in other channels, advertising in Telegram Ads with targeting by interests, regions, and professional affiliation, as well as cooperation with bloggers or owners of popular channels for placing native advertising are available. PR agencies can offer a variety of creative tools for promoting Telegram channels.
It is important to consider that when using Telegram to distribute advertising content, it is necessary to comply with the Russian legislature requirements, including correct marking of advertising posts and timely sending the advertising data to ERIR. This requires specialized knowledge of media lawyers who work in a lot of agencies today.
Unlike the European market, where WhatsApp groups or company news channels are created, in Russia this function is practically not used by anyone. For the most part, this messenger is used for personal or business communication. However, it can be a convenient tool for prompt communication with customers and sending out informational messages.

Traditional media
There are over 155 thousand mass media registered in Russia, including television, radio, print media and online publications. After 2022, the Russian media market became more localized and focused on the development of digital communication channels. According to the results of public opinion research, Russians trust news, analytical, official websites approximately equally; they trust slightly less national (central) and regional press, followed by messengers (the main one is Telegram).The most popular media among Russians remain news agencies (RIA Novosti with a monthly audience of 30 million users), TASS (audience of 20 million users), socio-political media, for example, Izvestia with an audience of 20 million. The most popular business publications are RBC, Kommersant, Vedomosti, Forbes.
Business media play a key role in B2B communication. Their main audience are business professionals, entrepreneurs, top managers — decision makers. Many business newspapers and magazines (Kommersant, Vedomosti, RBC) are distributed in business centers, restaurants and high-end hotels, airport business lounges — where their audience is. These media present high-quality analytics, industry expert opinions, research results, and reports. Being present in business publications plays an important role in a B2B communication strategy.
Main traditional media and their specifics:
- Television continues to be a key source of information for a significant portion of Russians. According to the Russian research company Mediascope, which regularly monitors media consumption trends in Russia, people who watch TV the most are 35-44 years old (about 2.5 hours a day) and 65+ years old (about 7 hours a day) in 2024. Television is especially popular among those who live in the Russian regions outside of Moscow, St. Petersburg except for cities with a population of over a million (Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Perm, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, etc.). The main national channels, such as Channel One, Russia-1, Russia 24, set the agenda and broadcast both news and entertainment content.
- Radio remains popular, especially among car enthusiasts (such radio stations as Business FM, Kommersant FM, Avto Radio, Monte Carlo) and in regions far from Moscow and St. Petersburg (Russian Radio, Mayak, Radio Dacha, etc.). With the advent of the Yandex Radio aggregator, which is part of Yandex Music, this communication channel received a second life. Radio remains in demand due to its widespread availability, variety of formats and relevant content, including news, music and analytical programs. Radio stations are adapting to modern conditions by developing podcasts and streaming services.
- Printed publications are gradually losing popularity, but specialized and regional newspapers continue to play an important role, especially for older audiences. The absence of foreign advertisers and sanctions on printing equipment speed up the decline of the print media segment. Many international media became local and rebranded: for example, Popular Mechanics became TechInsider, Esquire became Rules of Life. Despite certain challenges, several business print magazines are still published in Russia, such as Company, Expert, Monocle, and Profile. Industry magazines also remain relevant and remain a valuable source of information for professionals. For example, Glavny Inzhener, Agrobiznes, FoodService, Metallosnabzhenie i Sbyt, and many others. A more complete list of industry publications is available following the link.
Online media
Russians increasingly receive information from digital communication channels. Therefore, more and more companies and brands prefer online media when planning their communication strategy. Several key categories of online media are the following:- Biggest news agencies: RIA Novosti, TASS, Interfax, Prime. These publications set the agenda and are the main source of information for both the general audience and many other media.
- Business publications: RBC, Kommersant, Vedomosti, Forbes, Expert, Monokl. They cover the business audience, including entrepreneurs, management and executives.
- Socio-political media, such as Izvestia, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Gazeta.ru, Lenta.ru, cover a wide range of topics of interest for the Russian population.
- B2B Trade media: specialized platforms for working with a professional audience, that help to achieve specific communication goals. There are 3 to 10 reputable, specialized media in each business segment:
In mechanical engineering: Mashnews.ru, Promvest.info, Controlengrussia.com, Ritm-magazine.com, etc.
In the fuel and energy sector: Oilcapital.ru, Neftegaz.ru, Ngv.ru, Eprussia.ru, Angi.ru, etc.
In the agro-industrial sector: Agroxxi.ru, Agroinvestor.ru, Agbz.ru, Rynok-apk.ru, etc.
- Regional online publications play a significant role in promoting brands at the local level, especially for companies operating in specific Russian regions. For example, Realnoe Vremya in Tatarstan, Business Bashkiria in Bashkortostan, Business Class in Perm Krai, Delovoy Peterburg in Leningrad Oblast, Continent Siberia in Novosibirsk Oblast, Business Newspaper Yug in Krasnodar Krai, etc.
Working with the Russian media is based on building trustworthy relationships with journalists and providing high-quality, relevant content, such as expert opinions, industry analytics, insider information, commentary on market events, comprehensive trend reviews, professional forecasts, etc. Good content is a guarantee that a company can get publications in leading national and trade media free of charge.

Telegram channels
With the rapid development of Telegram, all major media launched their own channels, attracting younger audience. Telegram became one of the main channels for distributing media materials. This is due to, among other things, the development of news Telegram channels, such as MASH, Beware, news, Before everyone, SHOT, Baza, which contribute to the prompt circulation of online media news, and often serve as a source of news themselves.Another segment of media in Telegram is editorial offices developing trade channels that unite narrow-specialized audience. For example, NOM Publishing House is developing the Telegram channels Nerzhaveyka (about metallurgy), Vysokoe napryazhenie (about energy), Gruzopotok (about logistics), MashTekh (about mechanical engineering), Svobodnaya kassa (about retail), Telekommunalka (about the telecom market), Khimprom (about the chemical industry), etc. They are becoming a full-fledged niche media.
The third important group of Telegram channels are personal channels of experts in certain topics (economists, lawyers, tax specialists, doctors, scientists, restaurateurs, entrepreneurs, consultants, journalists, PR specialists, etc.). These are opinion leaders who are becoming increasingly popular among Telegram audience due to their analytical materials, author's opinion, and professional interpretation of events. Today, such expert channels inspire high trust.
It is important to note that on January 1, 2025, a law on the deanonymization of bloggers came into effect. It is now mandatory to register in the Roskomnadzor registry. This means that bloggers with an audience of more than 10 thousand subscribers who distribute content in Russian must provide Roskomnadzor with information about themselves and their pages/channels in social networks and instant messengers. Placing advertisements in an unregistered channel or community with more than 10 thousand subscribers will entail administrative liability in accordance with Part 1 of Article 143 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses, which provides for a fine on citizens in the amount of 2,000 to 2,500 rubles, on officials - from 4,000 to 20,000 rubles, on legal entities - from 100,000 to 500,000 rubles.
Effective tools for working with the Russian media
Here are some effective tools for working with the Russian media:- Data PR: research remains one of the main sources of news. Today, many companies conduct research, so to stand out from the rest. It is necessary to offer truly unique and valuable data that correlates with the agenda.
- Expert content: columns, longreads and analytical articles remain in demand among journalists. Free publication of such materials is possible even in leading media, such as Forbes.ru, RB.ru, Pro.rbc.ru, however, you need to offer professional and original content.
- Newsjacking or Real Time PR: quick response to current events, such as changes in legislation, market events or industry trends. Journalists value prompt commentary and analysis of events, changes, trends and various news, as well as quality of expertise and compliance with deadlines.
- Success stories and cases: real examples of solving company production and business issues. Such materials should be informative and unobtrusive, focusing on solving problems rather than advertising a product.

How to build relationships with journalists
The most challenging part of starting a company's PR activities in Russia is building relationships with the journalists. According to our survey of Russian journalists (2022), they prefer to communicate via corporate email, as well as in Telegram and WhatsApp messengers. Messages in VKontakte, calls at their cellphones and letters to their personal emails remain undesirable methods of communication. It is important to respect their personal space, avoid unexpected calls and always agree on the time for communication in advance. There are exceptions to these rules. However, it is better to start communicating with a journalist you do not know carefully and delicately.Specialized PR agencies engaged in B2B communications can help you build relationships with the media. Our agency Fresh Russian Communications also provides such services.
Meeting editors-in-chief and initiating publications in Pressfeed.ru (online service, like the HARO service) is another way to get into editorial materials. Journalists leave requests for expert comments on Pressfeed.ru. Registered users can respond to them by providing facts or opinions. This way, companies and experts receive free publications in the media.
Influencers
Influencer marketing is becoming increasingly important in the B2B segment, helping brands establish genuine contact with customers and create a unique interaction experience. According to our study "Influencers in B2B Communications" (2023), 42% of the Russian B2B companies are already actively working with influencers; 81% of them rating their experience as "successful" or "rather successful". However, despite positive results, many companies in Russia still face several obstacles, including limited choice of influencers (57% of companies note this concern) and a lack of successful cases that could serve as a benchmark for using such practices.Industry experts, professionals who actively use a product or service, loyal customers, micro bloggers and industry journalists are the most effective in the Russian B2B market – unlike media personalities. The influencer's expertise and professionalism play a more important role than the size of their audience, especially for complex products or services. For this reason, companies are increasingly engaging their own employees as brand ambassadors: 43% of B2B companies use employees as influencers, and 60% of them consider this practice part of their corporate culture.
Influencers in B2B primarily help to increase brand awareness and build trust. Direct sales are rarely their main goal, but their activities help significantly to shorten customer's path to decision-making. The greatest efficiency in B2B is achieved by working with micro- and nano-influencers, who demonstrate high audience engagement and are often better suited for promoting services and products in B2B markets.
Influencer marketing in B2B is one of the priority areas of the Fresh Russian Communications agency. We have implemented similar projects for the companies Severstal, Beeline Business, QIWI Business, Essity (Tork brand), Freudenberg Group (Vileda Professional brand).

Events
After the explosive growth in popularity of online events that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, offline events have once again become more attractive in the B2B sector in Russia. Personal communication at conferences, business breakfasts or seminars allow you to establish interaction, strengthen business ties and create an atmosphere of trust. However, online formats are also actively used, especially if the company's customers are in different regions of Russia and it is difficult to gather them together for an offline event. A hybrid format combining offline and online is the best solution in Russia where the distance between cities is measured in thousands of kilometers.Popular formats of B2B events in Russia remain big multi-format conferences, forums and exhibitions, chamber business breakfasts, as well as training seminars and case conferences. Regional events help companies to establish contact with their audience, expanding their presence in other cities. Distributor conferences serve as an important platform for strengthening partnerships and discussing strategies for business growth in the market.

Useful contacts and resources for marketing and PR
Below is a list of useful resources that can help companies study the Russian market in terms of promotion opportunities.- Services for monitoring publications in the media and social networks (they will help you study your business segment, competitors, the general market agenda, etc.): Medialogy, SCAN Interfax, Brand Analytics.
- The first service in Russia for journalistic inquiries Pressfeed.ru for developing relations with the media.
- Services for e-mail newsletters: Unisender.com, Sendsay.ru, Mailpost.ru.
- Services for searching and checking bloggers: GetBlogger, LabelUp, Perfluence.net, Epicstars.com.
- Search for thematic Telegram channels: TGStat, Tlgrm, Telegrator.
- Checking the audience of media sites: Pr-cy.ru , Similarweb.com.
- A service where you can order a list of media relevant to you: FRC-media.ru (e-mail for feedback: moscow@frc-pr.com).
- A PR agency that deals with PR and marketing communications in B2B in Russia: Fresh Russian Communications.
- Global Telegram channel of the Fresh Russian Communications agency.
- B2B Journal is an online magazine about marketing communications and PR in the B2B sector.
Text prepared by:
- Ksenia Alekseeva, CEO of the PR agency Fresh Russian Communications, editor-in-chief of the online magazine B2B-Journal.ru, alekseeva@frc-pr.com, +7 925 391 86 85 (Telegram/WhatsApp).
- Kristina Matsak, B2B communications manager of the PR agency Fresh Russian Communication