Which money transfer routes work reliably for Indian medical students living in Russia?

You can still move money to Russia safely, but you need to use routes built specifically around the sanctions rather than mainstream apps. For your tuition and hostel fees, direct bank pipelines work fastest, while your monthly living expenses need a slightly different route through a non sanctioned local account. Once you know which channel matches which purpose, the process becomes fairly routine.

Transfer channels that actually work

Documents and limits you should keep ready

• Your passport and Russian student visa, plus the university admission or offer letter, so the remitter is never delayed at the bank counter.
• Your parent's PAN card and a completed Form A2, since every transfer falls under the RBI Liberalised Remittance Scheme, capped at USD 250,000 per financial year per student.
• Proof of whether the money is self funded or loan funded, because self funded remittances above Rs. 7 lakh attract 5 percent TCS, while loan funded ones attract only 0.5 percent, both of which you can claim back in your ITR.
• A separate Russian bank account at a smaller regional or non sanctioned bank for day to day cash, since your international debit or credit card will not work locally.

My Advice

Open your Sberbank India transfer for tuition and hostel fees first, since it is embassy backed and the least likely to get flagged, and keep your monthly living allowance flowing through an authorised forex partner into your local Russian account rather than relying on informal peer to peer cash networks, which carry real risk of scams.