On 24 January 2024, the State Duma Committee for the Financial Market proposed to adopt for consideration Draft law № 531412-8 “On Amending Article 45-6 of the Federal Law "On the Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia)"” (hereinafter - the “Draft law”).

The authors of the Draft law were a group of senators and deputies led by Anatoly Aksakov, Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market.

The Draft law proposes to authorize the Bank of Russia to limit the share of loans secured by a pledge of buildings, structures, land plots, construction in progress, residential and non-residential premises and parts of buildings or structures (parking spaces) intended to accommodate vehicles.

On 16 January 2024 the State Duma adopted in the first reading the draft law No. 412669-8 “On Amendments to Chapter 4 of the Federal Law “On the Basics of State Regulation of Trade Activities in the Russian Federation” (“Draft law”). The Draft law proposes to introduce a number of changes to the regulation of companies engaged in consumer market research, provided they receive revenue in the amount of more than 30 million rubles per year.

On 3 January 2024 a new Presidential decree No. 8 (“Decree No. 8”), which supplements Presidential decrees No. 95 dated 5 March 2022 and No. 665 dated 9 September 2023 regarding the regulation of special accounts of type “C” and type “I”, entered into force.

On 18 December 2023 the President of the Russian Federation issued decree No. 958 “On Amendments to Certain Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation”, according to which restrictions on certain types of deals with persons from “unfriendly” countries were extended.

Over the past two years, the number of arbitration disputes on the recovery of unjust enrichment from foreign IT-companies has increased significantly. For the period from 2022 to 2023, according to the Arbitration Case File, dozens of claims were filed by Russian legal entities against the largest foreign software manufacturers: IBM Eastern Europe/Asia LLC, Dell LLC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise LLC, and HP Inc LLC.

On October 23, 2023, the European Commission issued updated Consolidated FAQs on the implementation of Council Regulation No 833/2014 and Council Regulation No 269/2014 regarding the definition of criteria for control of companies.

On 20 October 2023, the draft law “On Amending Article 13 of the Federal Law 'On Peculiarities of Regulation of Corporate Relations in Business Companies that are Economically Significant Organizations'” was submitted to the State Duma. The Draft Law amends Federal Law No. 470 and cancels some restrictions for transactions aimed at obtaining direct control over ESO by Russian citizens and residents indirectly owning stocks/shares of ESO owned by a foreign holding company.

On 14 August 2023 the Tenth Arbitration Court of Appeal invalidated a real estate purchase and sale deal completed without the permission of the Government Commission for Monitoring the Implementation of Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the “Government Commission”). On 16 October 2023 the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal, confirming the illegality of such transactions bypassing the procedure provided for by current legislation.

The Federation Council approved on 28 July 2023 a draft law¹ regulating the procedure for the exercise of corporate rights by foreign participants of Russian companies.