OREANDA-NEWS. May 31, 2010. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) presented to the Government of the Russian Federation amendments to the Law "On Procedures for Foreign Investments in the Business Entities of Strategic Importance for Russian National Defence and State Security", reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Amendments drafted by the Antimonopoly Service are aimed at simplifying procedures for preparing petitions by foreign investors, increasing transparency of the procedures for petition consideration and eliminating excessive administrative barriers for transactions by foreign investors regarding strategic companies.

As stated by Deputy Head of FAS Russia Andrey Tsyganov: "This documents is aimed at eliminating a number of typical shortcomings in preparing and filing petitions by foreign investors, and clarifying some issues related to the procedures of preliminary transaction approval, which are not regulated by the current Law".

The draft Law introduces the following main changes:

- excludes bank cryptographic operations from the activities of strategic importance that are specified in Article 6 of the Law;

- clarifies the procedures for transactions within a group of persons in line with the statutory exceptions;

- shortens the list of strategic activities, subject to preliminary control, carried out by the banks, except the banks, in which the Russian Federation is a participant;

- clarifies statutory provisions that enable expanding exceptions, established by No.57-FZ Federal Law for use of subsurface resources, regarding transactions associated with an additional issue, which do not increase the rights of foreign investors to control shares of a strategic business entity;

- specifies requirements to the package of documents to be provided by a foreign investor with its petition, which will enable to eliminate petitioners' errors explaining the essence of a planned transaction.

Also, based on the outcome of discussions law with foreign investors and the interested executive bodies about the prepared draft, the Antimonopoly Service is working on the second package of amendments, including which the Law comprises practically all proposals put forward by foreign investors, that were approved throughout the discussions (except proposals about liberalization of control criteria for use of subsurface resources, which require additional study).

Reference:
Since No.5-FZ came into effect, FAS Russia has received 122 petitions, 58 petitions were considered at seven sessions of the Government Commission on Control over Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation.