The Association of Digital Platforms (ADP), which includes Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex, Avito, and Cooper, has sent the Russian government a list of support measures for businesses affected by drone attacks on marketplace warehouses. According to Vedomosti, the letter was sent to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin on August 12.
The main measure proposed by the ADP is direct non-repayable payments from the federal budget. The amount, according to the initiative's authors, should be calculated based on actual damage and the scale of the specific organization's operations. The association believes this would allow companies to resume operations at previous levels and preserve jobs.
In addition to compensation, the association proposes granting affected businesses a deferral or installment plan for taxes and other mandatory payments for at least six months, and waiving penalties and fines for the period when entrepreneurs could not operate normally.
Another set of measures concerns debt burden. The ADP asks for credit holidays for affected businesses for at least six months, permission to restructure debt, and special preferential loans to replenish working capital.
The association also proposes creating or expanding a system for insuring property and inventory against the consequences of emergencies. For small and medium-sized businesses, part of the cost of such insurance, according to the letter's authors, could be paid by the state. Additionally, it proposes a temporary moratorium on control and supervisory inspections of affected companies and exemption from fines for minor violations related to the attacks.
Wildberries said it supports the association's proposals. However, Alexei Fedorov, head of the e-commerce council at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, called the initiative "an example of bad lobbying": in his view, direct budget compensation only to Wildberries sellers would put them in a privileged position compared to other entrepreneurs who also lost property as a result of the attacks.
According to Margarita Evstigneeva, head of the Association of Goods Suppliers for Electronic Platforms, the number of affected sellers exceeded 400,000, and total losses including lost profits could amount to 600–700 billion rubles. Participants in a State Duma meeting on August 12, where business support measures were discussed, estimated the total damage to Wildberries and its sellers at 600–800 billion rubles.