FBK at the Forum of “Internet-Business in Russia

Yesterday the forum of “Internet-Business in Russia” organized by the Internet Initiatives Development Forum (IIDF) closed in Moscow.

In the forum top managers took part of such internet-companies as Yandex, Mail.Ru Group, Rambler, Ozone, heads of the investment funds, internet-businessmen, representatives of state authorities and scientific institutions. 
President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin spoke at the concluding meeting of the forum.

Alexander Ermolenko, FBK partner, heading the FBK Legal Corporate Practice, took part in the work of one of the forum sections – the panel discussion on “How to make Russia more attractive for transaction structuring than the off-shores”.

Participants in the discussion considered how to improve the investment climate in the country, the ways to improve Russian legislation and law enforcement, earlier round transaction structuring, the existing international practices of transaction implementation abroad.

In his speech Alexander Ermolenko expressed his opinion that to attract the investors and reduce the risks at the stage of “sowing” investments the focus should be on the application of laws. Lack of flexibility and very often unpredictable enforcement when the same economic situation is interpreted differently by different courts prevents from the development of investment activities in Russia, deters the investors especially venture ones.

In his view on the opinion expressed in the discussion that to enhance the role of Russian legislation in the field of investments, state corporations might be obliged to carry out some part of their investment transactions in accordance with the domestic laws, Alexander Ermolenko noted that he did not deem it to be an optimal solution as it would not make for the development in legislation. On the contrary, the mandatory use of Russian laws closes today’s only channel of Russian law development – its competitiveness with the foreign laws.

“Our experience proves that the major obstacle in the implementation of investment projects in Russia is in the bureaucratic mechanisms. Our objective is to make Russian laws more convenient for the economic activities in coordination with the global trends, using the best practices and implementing them in our country,” said the head of the FBK Legal Corporate Practice