National Center 'Russia' Offers A Platform In Moscow For Indian Products

NEW DELHI: The National Centre RUSSIA is seeking follow-up discussions on promoting Russian and Indian consumer goods beyond the exhibition floor, after presenting its UniverMag retail project at INNOPROM India. Director General Natalia Virtuozova described the Delhi showcase as a first step and offered space in Moscow for Indian products. 

“This is only the first step,” Virtuozova said at a press conference during the event. “The next step is to sit down together, discuss and understand how to promote the goods further.”

Her remarks shift the focus from what sells during a three-day exhibition to what might remain available once it ends. For an Indian producer considering the offer, the distinction is important: an opportunity to display a product is a starting point, while the arrangements for bringing it to customers still need to be worked out.

INNOPROM India is being held at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi from September 9 to 11, 2026. The National Centre RUSSIA has brought its UniverMag project to India for the first time, combining a selection of regional products with a cultural zone and craft demonstrations.

India's Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Russia's Industry and Trade Minister Anton Alikhanov visited the display with Virtuozova, according to a September 10 statement from the centre.

A two-way proposition

The centre's proposal is not limited to promoting Russian goods in India. Speaking at the press conference, Virtuozova said it was ready to make its platform available for Indian products, including through marketplaces, so that Russian audiences could learn more about them.

She recalled the familiarity of Indian tea, textiles and cotton goods in the Soviet period, presenting that history as a reason to renew consumer interest.

“We know very little about each other, but our markets need each other very much,” she said. “The population is huge, and high-quality products are in great demand.”

That is the centre director's assessment of the opportunity, not a market forecast. Her immediate offer was more specific: space to demonstrate Indian goods at the National Centre RUSSIA's department store in Moscow.

In the September 10 statement, Virtuozova also said she wanted UniverMag products to remain available to Indian buyers. Taken together, the remarks outline a reciprocal retail ambition. They do not yet establish a distribution network, a launch date or a list of participating Indian suppliers.

What the Delhi display can show

The exhibition provides an initial setting in which to observe reactions to individual products. Its selection includes porcelain, crystal, lace, confectionery, jewellery and other items associated with Russian regional manufacturers and craftspeople.

Virtuozova said visitors were buying across several categories. In a separate account of shopping at the stand, the centre highlighted chocolate, Tula gingerbread and an India-themed nevalyashka, a self-righting toy produced with the Kotovsk toy factory in the Tambov region.

The toy illustrates one approach to introducing a product abroad: retain its recognisable form while adapting its appearance to the audience. The limited-edition doll wears a sari, bringing an Indian reference into a traditional Russian design.

Craft demonstrations offer another form of introduction. The programme includes Khokhloma painting, Dymkovo clay toys and Mikhailov lace, allowing visitors to see techniques behind some of the objects on display.

These encounters can reveal what attracts attention and what needs explanation. They cannot, on their own, establish how a product would perform in regular retail. The centre's accounts describe early demand but do not provide the sales figures or repeat-purchase data needed to assess that prospect.

The work after the introduction

The next stage would need to answer practical questions for producers and buyers alike: which products to offer, who would supply and stock them, and how customers could buy them again after an exhibition visit. These are questions arising from the proposal, rather than arrangements announced in Delhi.

Virtuozova's call for further talks leaves room for that work. It also distinguishes the centre's role as a place for presentation from the commercial relationships that would be needed to sustain an exchange.

The Delhi display has brought products, craftspeople and potential customers into the same space, while the ministerial visit has given the initiative official visibility. The more consequential test will come afterwards: whether those introductions lead to named partners, a defined product range and continuing availability.

For Indian businesses, the Moscow offer is therefore an invitation to explore, not a completed route to market. For consumers in both countries, the eventual result would be simpler to judge — whether something discovered at a fair can become something they can reliably find again. 

Published on: Friday, September 11, 2026, 08:22 PM IST