Occult services (Russian market)

Main article: Russian economy

2023: Occult market turnover nears RUB 2 trillion

The occult services market size in Russia is approaching 2 trillion rubles per year. For comparison: over the year, Russians buy food for 2.1 trillion rubles, calculated. And Rosstat the amount of all checks in canteens, cafes restaurants countries and is 2.35 trillion rubles per year. Thus, the occult market has become almost as important as our daily bread, and at the same time it is also growing at 20% per year.

Freepik

The zone is gray, there are no exact statistics and numbers anywhere, warns Plekhanov PRUE Anna Tsvetkova, associate professor of the marketing department. But how successful things are with magicians and fortune tellers can be judged even by indirect signs: the audience of courses for masters of communication with otherworldly forces has grown 19 times over the year, only for beautiful certificates and certificates novice mediums lay out 900 billion rubles a year. financial Literacy courses and all kinds of lectures "How to become a billionaire in 100 days" and then bring less income, reported on December 26, 2023. "Arguments and Facts"

According to lawyer Ilya Rusyaev, managing partner of Ilyumzhinov, Rusyaev and Partners, fortune tellers occupy a leading position in the occult services market - their share is about 60-70% of the total market volume. Another 15-20% falls on a variety of rituals - removal of damage, fistula, lapels, etc. The rest of the niche is filled by other occult-magical practices such as cursing, communicating with spirits, treating with energy effects and the like, the expert said.

The most typical client is a lady between the ages of 25 and 55, who has a secondary or higher education, an average level of wealth. Two-thirds of the money magicians receive from people who turn to their services at the strength of a couple of times in a lifetime. As a rule, this is a person in a state of despair, grief or stress. For him, this is more of an impulsive act. The rest turn to certain types of magic quite regularly, for them it becomes a kind of replacement for religion.

In the capital, about 1.5 thousand people are actively engaged in fortune telling and occult services - so many proposals are posted on message boards, Anna Tsvetkova said. Everyone has different prices, reaching 40 thousand rubles per session. In the province, the same services are cheaper.

"A gullible client often falls into the hands of a psychologist experienced in everyday life, where a whole arsenal of funds goes to work with the victim, including promises of a bright future and ending with intimidation by the danger of fatal events that await in case of non-compliance with any instructions and termination of regular visits," continues Tsvetkova. - And the "specialist" may require a lot of sessions. And if a one-time visit does not cost too much, you will have to give very impressive money for a series of such visits. "

For all the dubious services of magicians, fortune tellers and witches, they can work on completely legal grounds, says lawyer Yuri Kapshtyk. You just need to issue a status self-employed or individual entrepreneur pay. taxes Magic and divination are not prohibited in Russia, although there is no normative act that would regulate this area. They tried to pass such a law several times, but something prevented. From the official point of view, their activities are "the provision of other personal services," there is such a line in the All-Russian classifier of types of economic activities.

The legal scheme will require a contract with the client. It must contain a record that the result is not guaranteed, lawyers warn, since it depends on many factors, and the effectiveness of such methods is not scientifically confirmed and is exclusively entertaining or auxiliary in nature.^[1]

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