I’m talking about any available in the US. I have seen Russian (or Soviet) products for sale in the past, but those were always military surplus, or collectables. I can’t think of a single Russian-made consumer product.
Why?
Russia has (or had) top-notch scientists and engineers. And, they clearly must make products to sell to their citizens. Why is there nothing that they have produced that is worth selling to the West?
I see Baltika beer at a local liquor store.
And there are some Ural motorcycle dealerships around the U.S…
I wasn’t aware of the bike, but food products don’t count, nor do big industrial products and services, of which there are a few.
The Krasnogorsk 3 (‘K-3’) 16 mm motion picture camera was very popular in the U.S. in the '90s. Spike Lee used one to shoot some scenes of Get On The Bus (1996).
Random consumer products may not be worth importing if you are outside the appropriate free-trade area or economic union. Luxury items or ethnic foodstuffs is one thing, but why flood the US with Soviet transistor radios or Russian razor blades?
OTOH you can get stuff like washing machines cheap, so maybe you just need to search the right store.
Yeah, and from the still camera side, there’s the Lomo, which sprouted up a whole genre of film photography called “Lomography.” Also, I remember Zenits and Zorkis being known among the photo community, but mostly as cheaper knockoffs of German cameras. (Huh. Looking through my camera vault, I apparently have a Lomo … which I don’t ever remember buying. And an old Moskva 6x9).
But, yeah, they hit more “niche” markets, not widely available and distributed in at least the US.
From what countries (other than China and other very-low-cost producers) do you see consumer products anymore? Mostly, I see either high-end luxury brands or those that have already well-established reputations of long-standing (e.g., Carl Zeiss). New (or newly-distributed in the US) brands are almost all from east and south-east Asia these days. Whatever Russian brands exist can’t compete on price with these countries, and the long cold war meant they didn’t have opportunity to build up a loyal following in the West, so where’s their niche today?
Living in Beijing, I see a lot of consumer products from the US, Russia, (Outer) Mongolia, Japan, South Korea, and plenty of others.
Stretching the definition of product a bit but if you’re into combat flight simulators then your only modern options are Russian. The IL2 and DCS series are sims for WW2 aircraft and moderns jets respectively.
My IKEA drinking glasses are made in Russia.
Vodka, caviar, etc. from Russia are routinely available.
Several software companies make products available here. Most famously Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Although I don’t many Americans are buying it lately due to concerns about what Putin might be insisting they do.
Our local international market has stuff including specialty grain products and cheese.
Historical note:
I had the wonderful (and hugely memorable) experience of visiting the USSR in 1970*.
*which happened to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War - reminders were everywhere, it might as well still have been raging.
In Moscow, my friends and I were excited to go to the GUM department store in central Moscow. After all it was famously huge, the largest store in the Soviet Union, and would surely be somewhere we could finally find something to spend our rubles on (some of us were loaded up with them, having sold our blue jeans to the highest bidder within seconds of stepping off the bus at our hotel).
Anyway, armed with lots of rubles and a good sum of much more valuable US dollars, we entered GUM intending to do some serious shopping.
We found nothing, not a single thing that interested us or that was worth buying. Fusty pale-green men’s jackets, cheap shoes (in the most pejorative sense), bulk Russian hard candy (unwrapped), razors my father wouldn’t have used, nothing. We left with as many rubles as when we entered (although I seem to remember spending a few kopeks on the candy).
On the other hand, a day or so later, we were allowed to go to the foreign currency store. Entrance was restricted to foreigners (or the well connected I suppose) with purchases only allowed using foreign currency. Well, now here was a store with stuff that interested us as western teenagers - cameras, prints, crystal, scarves, etc., and, yes, exquisite Russian dolls - all of it available for dollars/pounds/francs/marks …, all of high quality, and all but the dolls imported.
So when you asked why there are no Russian consumer products, I wanted to ask what else is new?
So you exclude the things they export the most by far.
Oil and gas is 55% of their exports. A significant portion of the rest is other raw materials and chemicals. After THAT, a great deal is industrial machinery.
Russian vodka is famous and sold everywhere.
Russian cars are still a moderate export, one hundred times more by value than motorcycles.
Very nice visualization of Russian exports and imports
That link shows extremely detailed info but it’s true, I see remarkably very few “non food consumer products” as either imports or exports.
Surely mobile phones and flat screen TVs must be a significant IMPORTS but even they’re just dwarfed by other categories.
That’s the whole point.
Their export economy is based on low-tech, food or natural resources. Why are they unable to develop a decent manufacturing base to create desirable consumer products? Is it a hold-over from the planned economy days?
Seems so.
Everybody knows that Soviet consumer products were way worse than western consumer products.
So are you asking why they are STILL worse then western products (if that is true)?
I looked at Russian cars, as one big category of consumer products that could well be a major export category.
Domestic branded cars in Russia have approx. the same domestic market share as the domestic branded cars in the U.S.
But according to Wiki, the largest domestic manufacturer is basically controlled by Renault (perhaps comparable situation to Skoda or Dacia) and the second largest assembles foreign branded cars.
“Hold-over from the planned economy days” seems to be just it. Stuff does not get fixed that quick.
Also War Thunder and World of Warplanes – both Russian-owned.
TSProf knife sharpeners are well regarded by some.
Dutch disease seems a reasonable explanation, and in fact the Russian oil and natural gas industry in the 2000s is given as an example in the Wikipedia article on it.
I was curious about the value of the Russian ruble (“RUB”) against the US dollar. So I went over to here (click historical, then max).
Their earliest value is given as nearly on par with the dollar in 1993. A big spike around 1998, another around 2015, maxing out at 82+RUB to 1$. Currently in the 60s.
So some serious inflation. Not sure how much of this has to do with natural gas, etc. Such spikes are more of an indication of idiots in charge of the government. And that can really mess up an economy more than valuable exports.
(I had a relative who went to Russia several times and told about the blue jean hustling. On one trip left Russia by train to Finland the night of Aug. 20, 1968. Lots of extra security at the border for some strange reason. :eek:)
