OREANDA-NEWS. October 08, 2012. The Chairman of the Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykin, and the Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russian), Igor Artemyev, signed a Cooperation Agreement, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

Under the reached arrangements, the parties discussed the main areas of the cooperation procedures in the field of criminal proceedings, antimonopoly law and other types of activities. The Agreement provides for exchanging information on the issues of mutual interest for the agencies on a regular basis; organizing joint conferences, seminars, working meeting and other events, mutual consultations; establishing inter-agency working (expert) groups.

“Efforts of FAS Russia and the Investigation Committee directly overlap; and the Cooperation Agreement will raise investigations of violations of the antimonopoly law and the law on state procurement to a new quality level. The Agreement will enable our agencies to promptly exchange information, examine criminal cases, particularly under the framework of FAS investigations of cartels and misconducts in public offices. On top of everything else, our joint efforts will make a considerable anti-corruption contribution, which, in its turn, will have a positive effect upon the general economic situation in Russia”, pointed out Igor Artemyev.

Representatives of the Investigation Committee at the procedure of signing the Agreement also included the Head of the Chief Investigations Directorate, Alexander Schoukin; Acting Head of the Chief Directorate for Procedural Control, Valery Nazarenko; the First Deputy of the Chief Organizational-and-Inspectional Directorate, Alexei Istomin; and the Head of the Media Relations Directorate, Vladimir Markin. FAS was also represented by the Head of Legal Department, Sergey Puzyrevsky, and the Head of Cartel Department, Alexander Kinyov.

Reference:

FAS does not enjoy the rights to conduct operational-and-investigative activities and cannot initiate criminal cases. Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for criminal liability for participation in cartels. To expose cartel collusions, FAS must carry out unscheduled inspections of economic entities jointly with the law enforcement bodies. The Agreement will facilitate effective cooperation between the Investigative Committee and the Antimonopoly Service.