Telephone numbers in Russia

• 1. Introduction

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  Telephone numbers in Russia are administered by two federal bodies: Roskomnadzor and the Ministry of Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media. On the surface, a phone number looks like a simple string of digits. Beneath that surface lies a system shaped by the collapse of an empire, contested borders, and decades of technical coordination across the world's largest country.

  Russia uses a closed numbering plan. Every national significant number assigned to a subscriber telephone contains exactly ten digits: a three-digit area code followed by a seven-digit subscriber number. That fixed structure underpins every call made across eleven time zones.

  The country code at the heart of this system is 7. It is a number with a long history, originally assigned not to Russia but to the Soviet Union. When the USSR dissolved in 1991, all fifteen successor states inherited that single code. Some kept it for years. Others rushed to claim new ones. A few would later find themselves drawn back into its orbit in ways no one had anticipated.

• 2. A Soviet Legacy

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  Country code 7 was assigned to the Soviet Union and remained in use by all fifteen successor states after the 1991 dissolution. Between 1993 and 1998, thirteen of those states switched to new, individual country codes drawn from the 3xx and 9xx ranges. Two did not: Russia and Kazakhstan.

  Kazakhstan's continued presence inside country code 7 means the two nations share a numbering space. Russia designates two specific area codes for routing calls to Kazakhstan, and when dialing internationally to Almaty, a caller uses the same country code prefix as when dialing Moscow. The ITU recommendations E.164 and E.123 govern how this shared arrangement works in practice, and Russia participates in both.

  The dialing pattern itself reflects the legacy structure. Calls within Russia begin with the digit 8, followed by the area code and subscriber number. International calls outward require either the prefix 8-tone-10 or the plus sign, depending on the method used.

• 3. Mapping a Continent

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  Geographic area codes beginning with 3 or 4 serve Russia's vast territory. Moscow City carries codes 495 and 499, inheriting from the old 095 code that once served the capital. Saint Petersburg uses 812.

  The 4xx dialing range was introduced on the 1st of December 2005, replacing the older 0xx codes. The purpose was practical: adopting this change allowed Russia to implement the ITU recommendation that 0 and 00 serve as local and international dialing prefixes respectively. The old 095 code for Moscow, along with 19 other Russian area codes beginning with 0, expired on the 31st of January 2006.

  Across Russia's federal subjects, each region carries its own distinct code. Kamchatka Krai uses 415. The Sakha Republic, which alone covers more land than most countries, uses 411. Kaliningrad Oblast, the exclave on the Baltic coast separated from the Russian mainland, uses 401, having replaced its old code 011.

• 4. Mobile, Freephone, and Special Lines

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  The 9xx range is reserved for Russian mobile networks. Operators including MTS, MegaFon, t2, and Beeline occupy codes from 900 through 999, with certain ranges reserved for satellite operators and telematic services. Code 954 designates satellite operators; 970 covers telematic services; 971 carries data transfer services.

  Codes 881 through 899 are reserved and not yet assigned. Codes 940 and 929 are set aside for Abkhazia and South Ossetia mobile numbers respectively, a detail that points toward political realities beyond ordinary telecommunications planning.

  Emergency numbers were unified and renumbered in the years following 2013. The old single-digit codes survive in parallel: 01 for the fire brigade, 02 for police, 03 for ambulance, 04 for gas service. The new three-digit equivalents are 101, 102, 103, and 104. A single general emergency number, 112, was rolled out as a unified system. In December 2013, Minister of Emergency Situations Vladimir Puchkov stated at a press conference that the unified system was running in full pilot mode from 2014 and would fully enter operational mode in 2016. Directory assistance is available through multiple numbers, including a free limited-information line at 109 and a paid service at 009, which charges 35 rubles per minute in Moscow.

• 5. Abkhazia and South Ossetia

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  Abkhazia's relationship with the Russian telephone system stretches back to 1992, when it shared a single numbering system with Russia. In April 1996, the Ministry of Communications of the Russian Federation cut international telephone communications in Abkhazia sharply, retaining only 16 outgoing and 24 incoming channels from the 151 incoming and 182 outgoing channels that had operated previously.

  On the 15th of February 1997, Russia and Georgia signed an agreement providing for changes to how Abkhazia communicated with the outside world, switching channels through Georgia. Abkhazia's leadership rejected the arrangement, accusing both Russia and Georgia of violating a prior agreement that had called for restoring communications to their pre-1992 state.

  The situation changed fundamentally on the 28th of September 2009, after Russia recognized Abkhazia's independence. Russia and Abkhazia signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, and Abkhazia was given telephone codes from numbering zone 7. The switch to the Russian numbering plan took effect on the 1st of January 2010. Before that date, Abkhazian numbers could be accessed from abroad through the Georgian country code +995. South Ossetia followed a parallel path, with fixed telephony reachable through area code 850 and mobile telephony through 929.

• 6. Annexed Territories

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  In 2014, following the Russian annexation of Crimea, the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol were integrated into the Russian numbering plan. Crimea received area code 365, replacing the Ukrainian country code 380 and the old Ukrainian area code 65. Sevastopol received code 869, replacing Ukrainian code 69.

  On the 7th of May 2022, four additional Ukrainian oblasts were integrated into the Russian numbering plan following annexation. Donetsk received code 856, replacing Ukrainian code 62. Luhansk received 857, replacing 64. Kherson received 860, replacing 65. Zaporozhye received 810, replacing 61. Each assignment maps a Russian area code directly onto the Ukrainian geographic code it displaced, making the numbering plan a record of the territorial changes Russia has claimed since 2014.