For member-countries of the Hague Convention (1961), instead of Consulate legalisation an apostille is required to be issued by the appropriate local state agency after the notarization.

The main examples of public documents for which Apostilles are issued in practice include extracts from commercial registers and other registers; patents; court rulings; notarial acts and notarial attestations of signatures; academic diplomas issued by public institutions. Finally, the Convention neither applies to documents executed by diplomatic or consular agents nor to administrative documents dealing directly with commercial or customs operations (e.g., certificates of origin or import or export licenses).

Each signatory country authorizes their bodies to use apostille. In Russia apostille is used by:
- justice agencies of constituent entities of RF put apostille in documents issued by their subordinate justice bodies and in copies of documents notarized in constituent entities of RF where these bodies are located;
- offices of civil registration of constituent entities of RF put apostille in civil registration certificates issued by offices of civil registration of constituent entities of RF and their subordinate offices;
- office of documental and reference work of Committee for Matters Concerning Archives put apostille in papers issued by Record Offices of RF;
- archive bodies of constituent entities of RF put apostille in papers issued by their subordinate bodies;
- administration of Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation put apostille – in papers issued by prosecutors offices.