Despite Samsung’s withdrawal from the Russian market after the Russian-Ukrainian war began, preorders for the Galaxy Z5 series have begun in Russia. Although the new Samsung foldable phone is drawing attention in Russia, the Russian government is expected to impose sanctions on Samsung Electronics soon. So, it remains to be seen if there will be a change in smartphone market share in the Russian market in the future.
According to Russian media outlets such as TASS Russian News Agency on Aug. 1, the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Galaxy Z Fold 5, the new foldable phones that Samsung Electronics unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked late last month, have begun preorders in Russia, two weeks ahead of their official global release date of Aug. 11.
The two new models are now available on the online stores of Russia’s two largest mobile operators, MTS and MegaFon, as well as local Russian electronics retailers M.video and Eldorado. Their prices start at 110,000 rubles (US$1,190) for the Flip 5 and 190,000 rubles for the Fold 5. Compared to their prices in the Korean market, that of the Flip 5 is similar, but that of the Fold 5 is slightly more expensive in Russia.
Previously, Samsung Electronics stopped all shipments to Russia in March 2022. This was because global shipping companies stopped their services on Russian routes, blocking the Korean tech giant’s export routes to Russia. As a result, Samsung Electronics’ share of the Russian smartphone market, which touched 34 percent at one point, reportedly dropped to less than 1 percent. On the other hand, the combined share of Chinese smartphone makers such as Xiaomi and Realme, which took Samsung’s place, more than doubled from 40 percent in December 2021 before the war to 95 percent in December 2022.
However, Samsung’s share has reportedly rebounded in recent months after Russia allowed the parallel import of a wide range of consumer goods, including smartphones, in June 2022. Since the Western trade sanctions against Russia, Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics products have been sold in Russia via parallel import.
In response, the Russian government has begun discussing excluding Samsung’s smartphones from the list of items allowed for parallel import. “Samsung smartphones are still on the list of allowed parallel import items,” TASS reported, citing a draft request for approval of the parallel import list sent by the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade to the Russian Ministry of Justice, “But the Russian government has started discussing scratching them off the list.”
Maksut Igorevich Shadayev, minister of digital development, communications and mass media of the Russian Federation, asserted that Chinese products are not far behind Samsung and LG, so there is no problem with removing products from the two South Korean companies from the parallel import list, according to Russian media outlets. On the other hand, Shadayev reportedly said that Apple’s iPhones were not on the table for exclusion from the list.