OREANDA-NEWS. May 26, 2014. “Deloitte” organized the Round Table on the “Major Risks and Solutions for Chinese Investors in Russia”.

As emphasized by the Head of the Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service or Control over Foreign Investors, Armen Khanyan, “the Russian Federation formed sufficiently liberal and convenient conditions for creating favourable investment climate. We do not have any discriminatory measures with regard to any countries. There are common procedures that are the same for everyone”.

Then, Armen Khanyan discussed in more detail the procedure for coordinating transactions of foreign investors with Russian strategic companies.

“The existing procedure for considering petitions clearly explains what should be done to get an approval. It is specified in No.57-FZ Federal Law which is entitled precisely “On the Procedures of Foreign Investors in the Business Entities of Strategic Importance for the Natural Defence and State Security”. Under this Law, one files a petition to FAS – one receives a decision from FAS. Statistical data confirm easiness and transparency of the coordination procedure”.

For instance, according to Armen Khanyan, in 6 years of enforcement of No.57-FZ Federal Law on foreign investments, out of 332 petitions filed to FAS only half of them required approvals and only 9 transitions were refused. No decision issued by the Government Commission for Control over Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation was challenged at Courts, although it is allowed under Article 11 of No.57-FZ Federal Law.

The total sum of transactions of foreign investors with regard to Russian strategic companies in 2008 - 2014 reached nearly 1 trillion RUB, and the planned investments - around 900 billion RUB.

As reported by Armen Khanyan, in the near future another package of amendments would be adopted to even more simplify some norms of the law.