OREANDA-NEWS. May 24, 2013. Speaking at the International Legal Forum in St Petersburg, the Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), Igor Artemiev, proposed to his colleagues from the antimonopoly bodies of the European Union and the US to consider establishing an inter-government antimonopoly body, which would be similar to the Interpol.

The idea is caused, first of all, by the need to intensity anti-cartel efforts, particularly against international cartels.

Igor Artemiev also stated the FAS had devised the Strategy for Antimonopoly Regulation for the period up to 2024.

“If you would like to understand what will happen in the antimonopoly field in the next 1.5-2 years, you must open the Road Map for competition development, adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation at the end of 2012. If you would like to look further, you should pay attention to our Strategy”, explained Mr. Artemiev.

According to the Head of FAS, many measures of the Road Map are already executed or are at advanced stage of completion. For instance, the Government of the Russian Federation made principal decisions on air transportation to allow entry of foreign low-cost airlines to the Russian market, and establish alternative refueling facilities in airports (no less than 3 refueling complexes in the airports with the passenger flow over five millions, and no less than two refueling complexes in the airports with over a million passengers per year), which will stimulate competition and, as a consequence, reduce prices.

Decisions are also made to liberalize intergovernmental agreements to allow market entry of new carriers. The new rules already are in place for carriage between Russia and Italy, and Russia and France. According to Igor Artemiev, it must positively affect air fares for flights to these countries. “There were no discriminatory intergovernmental agreements between Russia and the US and Russia and Germany, so competition between carriers is intensive and it influences prices which are lower than on other routes”, clarified Igor Artemiev.

The Head of FAS also emphasized positive steps in the communications industry: principal decisions were made to abolish “mobile slavery” (keeping the same number when changing providers) and to implement the principle of technological neutrality. “Currently there is an effective discussion on abolishing intra-network roaming”, said Igor Artemiev.

The Head of the antimonopoly authority also gave positive examples on implementing the Road Maps on oil products, public procurement, and social sphere.