Preface
Preface Torsten Syrbe When Compendium II was published about a year ago, we remarked that Russia had gone through legislative and political changes in 2012/2013 that – from a lawyer’s perspective – could be described as dramatic. We would have been more cautious about using the word ‘dramatic’ had we known then what developments were to come in the year that followed. The impact of the Ukraine crisis on the Russian business environment, including business law, has been profound. Planned areas of development (such as reforming the civil law regime and introducing WTO rules following Russia’s accession in 2012) have been outside the spotlight, while the political disputes between Russia and many Western countries relating to the events in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, followed by the imposition of U.S. and EU sanctions, seemed capable of threatening the foundations of Russian business. The Ukraine crisis is not yet over, and the threat of more severe sanctions still hangs over business relations between Russia and its foreign partners. As a result, a significant number of chapters in this Compendium III discuss legal changes and sanctions legislation triggered by the situation in Ukraine. At the level of ‘normal’ legislative developments, there were still numerous changes over the past year with far-reaching consequences for Russian business law. The reform of the Russian Civil Code has been continuing, with various bills already enacted, and this process will continue. Moreover, the Russian government now seems serious about implementing de-offshorization initiatives aimed at encouraging Russian groups to own their Russian assets directly instead of through multiple layers of special purpose vehicles located in low-tax and low-transparency jurisdictions. Finally, there were major legislative changes in other business law areas, including tax, oil & gas regulation, implementation of PPP projects, employment rules, foreign investment restrictions, healthcare regulation, financing practices and provision of security over assets and anti-corruption, as well as case law developments resulting from various decisions of Russia’s supreme courts in the past year. This book is the third in a series of compendia on Russian business law. The first book was published in 2009, Compendium II followed in 2013 and it is hoped that we can publish further editions about once per year. As was 4
the case for the previous editions, this book is not intended to be a comprehensive introduction to all areas of Russian business law. Rather, it covers topics that have been the focus of transactions and projects which Clifford Chance’s Moscow office has been involved in over the past year, and which are of significance to the business community. It addresses questions we have been asked by our Russian and international clients, or which we consider to be important for them to have in mind when doing business in Russia. We have tried to present information in a way that is useful and understandable to both legal professionals and non-lawyers. We hope that this Compendium III will be of interest to managers and other business-people, in-house counsel and lawyers in private practice, students and any other readers interested in the developments and challenges of Russian business law.
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