The list provides a variety of shopping opportunities across all verticals that are important to Russian consumers. From every day purchases to special high ticket items, we're delighted to have these merchants as our launch partners. Take a look:

• Online hypermarkets, Ozon.ru and Enter.ru
• Designer furniture and accessories from Westwing
• Travel from Tutu.ru and Anywayanyday.ru
• Russia's largest online store for clothes, shoes and accessories inLaModa.ru
• Fashion from MyWalit.ru
• Food delivery from Utkonos.ru
• Kitchen appliances from Holodilnuik.ru
• Cellphone and consumer electronics with Svyaznoy
• Emex.ru sells auto goods and parts
• Biglion, the leader in coupons, providing discounts for many great services
• KupiVip provides 90% discounts on online shopping.

This is a major milestone in our efforts to bring the security and convenience of PayPal to one of the world's fastest growing ecommerce markets.

According to a study by McKinsey & Company, there were 70 million people online in Russia in 2012, already the largest online community in Europe and growing at 35% each year. They also report people in Russia made $13bn in online purchases in 2011, which is expected to grow to $25bn by 2014.

The Russian people are eager to shop online. The problem so far has been doing so easily and safely. In a society dominated by cash we are excited to solve some of the friction points in paying online for the things you want.

It has been possible to open a PayPal account in Russia for a few years, but only to pay in US dollars. Despite that, three million people in Russia have registered for an account and over one million are using PayPal actively. Our internal data shows Russia is already one of the fastest growing export opportunities for merchants in countries like Brazil, the UK, Germany and China. The more people in Russia that used PayPal, the more we kept hearing they wanted to be able to pay in rubles. We listened and took action!

In May 2013 we were granted a license by the Central Bank of Russia, taking the total number of currencies we support to 26 and opening the doors to safer ecommerce in Russia.

We've been enthusiastically received.

Our reputation for successfully handling $145bn in online transactions in 2012, the fact that our payment platform spans 193 markets, and that our world-class fraud detection systems identify many criminals before anyone becomes a victim, provide the reassurance so far missing for Russian online shoppers.

That's why 13 merchants stood on stage today to talk about how excited they were to be offering PayPal payments to their customers.

And we're just getting started.

We'll be announcing many more merchants in the coming months and toward the end of the year we'll start bringing smaller merchants on board.

According to the companies on stage in Moscow, the launch of PayPal marks the coming of age of online commerce in Russia. We can't wait to see how the market develops and we'll be ready to introduce more innovation when the time is right. For now, Russia is open for business.