Response from dev forum:

"As most of you know, our developer tools suggest pricing based on market research and purchasing power parity. In the case of territories such as Russia, Brazil, and SE Asia, we suggested pricing that is lower than the direct USD conversion. This is based on our assessment of actual pricing of comparable products in that market. Recently Rubles have hit an all-time low which has been a concern of many game developers. We are still assessing the market to see if suggesting new prices in Russia is right for customers who live in that market. We do not think that pricing based on currency conversion only is the right way to approach the Russian market necessarily.

What we are doing immediately in response to the Ruble drop is limiting trading and gifting from Russia to prevent people from taking advantage of the situation. We have been applying a gifting and trading lock of this type on all newly created packages on Steam since mid-2014. Today we have propped a change that will affect all packages on Steam which will not allow them to be unpacked to an account, if gifted or traded from a lower priced region to a higher priced region. This change is not retroactive and only affects new purchases. It also will not affect customers in that region from gifting a copy to other people in that same region. All customers will have proper warning when they are purchasing a gift prior to checkout in those regions as well. We will continue to assess the situation and make changes if necessary in the future. If you have any questions please feel free to write us via the contact form via the Steamworks Development site - Documentation & Help -> Contact Steam Publishing."

9 years ago*

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So what exactly is the issue here?

If you're a cheapskate, don't use Steam in the first place. You either feel obliged to buying and playing video games passionately (Which makes paying certain prices for games indifferent) or you don't.

All this whining about Valve reacting to global financial circumstances is fucking annoying. Receiving gifts from Russia all the time has been a legal grey area all the time (Especially regarding Valve's ToS), so don't pretend you're surprised that it had to stop at some point.

8 years ago
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A bit late for the party, aren't ya? :)

View attached image.
8 years ago
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" We have been applying a gifting and trading lock of this type on all newly created packages on Steam since mid-2014... This change is not retroactive and only affects new purchases. "

I have some old gifts - were purchased before 2014.
Region - RU

How can I check regional restrictions (or their absence) on this gifts?
Or all of them are 100% without regional restrictions? (ROW)

ADDED 2016-04-23 :
I've made separated thread with my questions :
https://www.steamgifts.com/discussion/J1p40/how-to-determining-have-gift-in-inventory-regional-lock-or-not

8 years ago*
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Hm .. I see a solution , let Russia conquer the entire world and so everyone on Earth will be able to buy games in Russian
rubles and pay the same low Russian price
Interesting fact that Russian do not pay VAT , they will be charged with taxes starting from 1 January 2017 , Russian economy is fucked up that much so they now decided to charge gamers and streamers

8 years ago
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Hope Crimea was worth it xD

8 years ago
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I agree with the tactics. I live in Greece, don't have a lot of money and still i have to pay my ass to get a game! hope they will price each county individual.

8 years ago
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Why are we even on a topic that was opened one and a half year ago? o.O

8 years ago
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Yep, seriously...who the heck is searching that old threads?

8 years ago
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Burn the necrobumper!)
(I'm one of them)

8 years ago
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