Doing business in Russia

Dear reader,

We are glad to present you the latest edition of the CMS Doing business in Russia guide. CMS has a fresh look and a new message to share with the world, which reflect the transformation we went through in the recent years as our clients’ business and the way we operate evolved. 

This April CMS has revealed its refreshed brand, Future Facing, which reflects CMS’s open, bold, agile and dynamic attitude. It conveys a position of far-sightedness – not only looking to the future, but actively preparing for it. Technology is also at the heart of this rebranding with initiatives such as Lupl, an open industry software platform for legal matters management, the CMS Insurance App, the CMS Dawn Raid App and the CMS Data Breach Assistant. You can find more details on these initiatives on our website.

With 80 offices in 40+ countries and 5,000+ lawyers worldwide, we combine deep local market understanding with a global overview. This gives us the ability not only to see what’s coming, but to anticipate the changes, confronting them and, beyond that, actively drive and shape them. In a world of ever-accelerating change where technology is increasingly important in the deployment of global strategies, our clear, business-focused advice helps clients of every size to face the future with confidence. 

We at CMS Russia have been welcoming investors to Russia for almost 30 years. We advise both international clients on every aspect of business in Russia and Russian clients worldwide. Our history and expertise in the local market allow us to provide our clients with efficient, business-oriented and strategic advice. We provide a full range of legal and tax services across 21 expert and sector areas. 

As part of our undertaking to create added value for clients, our professionals have put together this introductory guide to the Russian legal system and the principal laws and regulations that are of interest to investors in this challenging but opportunity-full market. It is of course no substitute for the expert advice tailored to your project that we will be pleased to provide to you on request.

Russian legislation is changing rapidly. So, please contact us to check that it remains up to date. We would also recommend that you subscribe to our free online service CMS Law-Now through which you will receive our legal and tax eAlerts. 

We wish you every success.

Contents

• Introduction
• Common forms of business structures for foreign investors
• Anti-monopoly issues
• Contracts
• Tax system
• Customs regulations
• Currency control
• Lending in Russia
• Employment/Migration
• Personal data protection
• Intellectual property
• Advertising issues
• Anti-corruption and compliance
• Real estate and construction
• Dispute resolution
• Corporate bankruptcy
• E-commerce
• Import substitution and production localisation in Russia
• Banking sector
• Environment, energy efficiency and renewables
• Infrastructure and public private partnerships
• Oil & gas