OREANDA-NEWS. July 23, 2012. The antimonopoly law is the Ethics Code for bona fide business. No large company can go unpunished destroying small and medium business, discriminating it, or creating disadvantageous conditions for doing business. The Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), Igor Artemyev, outlined this position, speaking to representatives of the authorities and business community in Gorno-Altaisk, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

“The role of the state, in the person of the antimonopoly authority, is to force monopolists to behave fairly”, said Igor Artemyev.

The Head of FAS expressed confidence that “normal development of economics is impossible without observing the antimonopoly principles”.

Discussing FAS activities, Igor Artemyev outlined the main priorities of the antimonopoly authority for the coming years. Combating cartels is one of such priorities. “In the past 20 years the problem of cartelization of the Russian economy was played down. Cartels, however, constitute the most dangerous violation of the antimonopoly law, the consequences of which often include unreasonable growth of prices and maintaining monopolistically high prices.

Cartels have adverse impact upon inflation, public welfare, the state of the economy in general”, said Igor Artemyev. He reminded that the first sanctions for cartels were introduced as far back as under Tsar Nicolas I. Nowadays, for taking part in cartels companies shall be held criminally liable under Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.