Russia's Machine-Readable Power of Attorney (MChD): What It Changes for Your Shipment

1. What the MChD is

The MChD is an electronic power of attorney in machine-readable form. It replaces the paper authorisation that a Russian company used to hand its declarant, broker or logistics manager for dealings with customs. It lives in the FTS personal cabinet, and it is tied to the electronic signature of the person who issues it.

The key point for a foreign supplier is the source of authority: the MChD can be created only by the director of the organisation, exactly as that person is recorded in the state register. A commercial manager, a purchasing officer or an external agent cannot generate one for themselves, no matter what internal instruction they hold. If the director's own account is not in order, nobody in that company can be authorised at all.

2. Who must be set up on the buyer's side

Two people must complete their own set-up before a single declaration for your goods can be signed: the director who grants the authority, and the employee who receives it.

The director (the grantor) must:

• register in the FTS personal cabinet;
• confirm their identity by logging into the cabinet through Gosuslugi, the Russian state services portal;
• attach their electronic signature in the employee profile;
• confirm the right to sign without a power of attorney — that is, prove they are the person the register names.

The employee (the authorised person) must:

• register in the FTS personal cabinet;
• confirm their identity through Gosuslugi;
• be linked to the organisation as its employee, by accepting the company's invitation in the cabinet.

Only when both chains are complete can the director issue the MChD. The full procedure is published by the FTS on its help pages for creating an MChD. If your buyer does not want to run this in-house, the alternative is to hand the declaration to a licensed customs clearance provider, whose own director issues the MChD to its own declarants.

3. What this means for your shipment

The MChD is a Russian administrative procedure, but it sits directly on the critical path of your delivery. Goods that arrive in Russia cannot be released until a declaration is filed, and a declaration cannot be filed until someone with a valid electronic authorisation signs it. A consignment can be perfectly documented on your side — clean invoice, matching packing list, correct HS classification, valid certificates — and still stand at the border because the person expected to file has no live MChD behind their signature.

Check who will sign the declaration for your goods before the container leaves, not after it arrives. Setting up a director's confirmed account, an electronic signature and an employee link is not something your buyer can complete while the truck waits at the crossing point, and every day of delay is paid for in storage and demurrage under your delivery terms.

The exposure is uneven. Under DAP or DDP you carry the cost of the standstill yourself. Under FCA or CIF the cost formally falls on the buyer, but a consignment stuck at the border still becomes your problem: payment slips, the buyer blames the shipment, and the next order is delayed. Either way, the question of who signs deserves the same attention you give to certification and shipping documents.

4. Documents and timing before you ship

You are not a party to the MChD and you cannot obtain one — it is issued by a Russian legal entity to its own staff. What you can do is make sure your paperwork lands with a party that is actually able to use it.

Ask your consignee, in writing, for the name and role of the person who will file the declaration, and whether that person is covered by an MChD issued by the director or works for a contracted customs representative. Where clearance is handed to a representative, confirm the company name and consignee details early: the declaring party's name has to match your transport and commercial documents, and correcting an invoice or a bill of lading after arrival costs far more time than issuing it correctly.

The published procedure sets no shortcut for urgent cases. The realistic planning assumption is that the buyer's authorisations must be in place at the moment the goods are ready to be declared, so treat this as a pre-shipment check, alongside contract, certificates and payment route.

5. What the exporter should do

1. Ask your Russian buyer to confirm who will sign the customs declaration for your consignment, by name and by company.
2. Ask whether the director's cabinet is confirmed and whether the MChD for that person has already been issued — before the goods are loaded.
3. If clearance goes through a customs representative, get the representative's details and check that the consignee and declaring party in your documents match what customs will see.
4. Keep your own document set unchanged but exact: invoice, packing list, contract, transport documents and certificates consistent with each other and with the goods.
5. Build the check into your order routine, so the same question is asked for every consignment rather than once per customer.
6. If your buyer cannot confirm a working authorisation, agree in advance who covers storage costs if the goods wait at the border.

6. Frequently asked questions

Does a foreign supplier need its own MChD?
No. The MChD is issued by a Russian organisation to its own employees for dealings with the Russian customs service. Your interest is confirming that your consignee has one in place.

Can our forwarder sign the declaration instead of the buyer?
Only if that company acts as a customs representative under a contract with the importer. In that case its own director issues an MChD to its own declarants, and the importer's internal set-up stops blocking the filing.

What happens if the person filing has no valid MChD?
The declaration cannot be signed on the company's behalf. The goods remain under customs control until the director completes the set-up and issues the authorisation, and storage accrues in the meantime.

How long does the set-up take?
No fixed timeframe is published. It depends on how quickly the director's account is confirmed through the state services portal and the electronic signature is installed, which is precisely why this belongs in your pre-shipment checklist rather than in arrival-day troubleshooting.

7. Expert opinion

Yaroslav Loginov — Expert in logistics and customs clearance with 40 years of experience.

«In my experience the goods almost never stop because of the goods. They stop because of a signature that nobody can legally put on the declaration. A supplier does everything right, ships on time, and then learns that the buyer's commercial manager has been handling customs for years on a paper authorisation and the director has never once logged into the customs cabinet. That set-up takes days to repair, and the cargo waits through all of them.»

«My advice to exporters is simple and costs nothing: put one line in your pre-shipment checklist — who signs the declaration, and is their authorisation already issued. Ask it in writing before loading. If the answer is vague, that is your early warning, and you still have time to route clearance through a customs representative instead of discovering the problem at the crossing point.»

Summary

Authorisation to act before Russian customs now runs through a machine-readable power of attorney, created only by the director of the Russian company in the FTS personal cabinet. Both the director and the employee who signs must hold confirmed accounts and be properly linked before any declaration can be filed. For you as the shipper, nothing changes in the goods or your documents — but the question of who signs on arrival becomes a pre-shipment check. Request a consultation, and we will look at your specific consignment and clearance route.