Immediately after Gazprom bought out international companies' stakes in Sakhalin-2, the state received a privileged share in Sakhalin Energy, which paid a $1.35 billion dividend.
The Constitutional Court has decided that the Supreme Arbitration Court has the right to set legal guidelines, not just follow the law — a move that lawyers say is the first step toward a precedent-based system of law.
Legal Week's Independent Law Firms in Europe supplement publishes Dmitry Afanasiev’s commentary on Russian legal market.
Russia withdrew a $22.7 billion lawsuit against Bank of New York Mellon Corp. Thursday, agreeing to a $14 million settlement and ending a case that critics said had threatened to further tarnish the already battered reputation of its judicial system.
The Lawyer 31 August 2009 publishes the work-life quiz with Ilya Nikiforov, Managing partner of EPAM.
The Ministry of Economic Development introduced another insolvency/bankruptcy bill, which is expected to bring a significant change in the company arrangements procedure for companies and for the first time in Russian legislative history to allow bankruptcy proceedings against groups of companies, including those with international structures.
President Dmitry Medvedev on Friday ordered Prosecutor General Yury Chaika and the head of the Kremlin’s oversight department, Konstantin Chuichenko, to open an investigation into state corporations, in a sign of growing skepticism over the institutions’ role in the economy.
In June 2009 amendments to the federal law on bankruptcy drafted by the Ministry for Economic Development came into effect. Evgeny Raschevsky, a partner with EPAM, comments on the amendments for Russia Today TV emphasizing that their purpose is to improve procedures to restore solvency of debtors and their financial rehabilitation.
...In addition to dropping its vague language, the amended law would cover cartel collusion, which it currently does not, said Grigory Chernyshov, a partner at law firm EPAM...
The Noga case, which those in Russia had thought was closed for good, has made itself known again. Yesterday, the Russian Finance Ministry acknowledged that funds in the Paris accounts of the Central Bank, RIA Novosti information agency and a number of other state companies in VTB Bank France SA and Calyon Bank, worth up to $70 million, had been frozen. Noga considers the 2006 agreement under which U.S. businessman Alex Kogan bought its debt invalid. The Finance Minister accuses Noga of misinforming the courts and Noga lawyers are ready to seek $800 million from Russia.
Russia's higher arbitration court is preparing to define the protocol for governmental officials and judges in receiving and declaring gifts. The maximum permitted value of gifts received in connection with one's job is being increased from 500 to 4,000 rubles, and it will be necessary to declare personal gifts of more than 100,000 rubles. Infractions of these rules can become grounds for criminal prosecution. Experts note that similar rules exist in many countries around the world but admit that the prospects for the effectiveness of their control over Russian judges and officials is uncertain...
Minority shareholders of YUKOS are taking legal action; On March 14, Russia received a summons to a court in the District of Columbia. Lawyers acting for American minority shareholders of YUKOS delivered the summons to the Russian Foreign Ministry via the US State Department. Russia is officially the main defendant now.
Law students from 14 European countries are in St. Petersburg to take part in the annual meeting of the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA) that convened Wednesday and runs through Sunday...
While reducing the statute of limitations for privatization deals, the Kremlin is changing the regulations for corporate conflicts. The presidential administration proposes that the term within which disputed deals can be revised should be tripled. As yet, conflict participants aren't sure if this is good or bad...
Elections, the independence of the courts and a high-profile furniture scandal converged Monday, as a Moscow City Court judge accused the Prosecutor General's Office of pressuring the court to issue rulings in its favor.