Armen Khanayn: Russian market has prospects and will continue growing

On 19 May 2016, at the VI Petersburg International Legal Forum, lawyers and representatives of the authorities discussed foreign investments in Russian strategic companies.

The main items on the agenda were: the procedures for considering petitions, the timeframe and required documents as well as the trends with foreign investments in Russian strategic companies in view of the current economic and political situation.

“In the past year the number of petitions for transactions with strategic companies went up”, said Acting Head of the Moscow Office of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (Moscow OFAS), the former Head of the Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service for Control over Foreign Investments (2012-2016), Armen Khanayn. He added that “factoring in the current crisis and that makes assets cheaper, foreign investors are very much interested in Russian markets and they try to understand which areas are the most profitable for them to gain long-term effects”.

Participants also discussed specifics of applying the Federal Law on the procedure for foreign investment (No. 57-FZ). According to Armen Khanayn, “the Law formalizes a transparent procedure that today outlines the entire algorithm from filing a petition to receiving the decision”.

Experts also agreed that in general No. 57-FZ does not create any enforcement difficulties and supported the clarity of the petition filing procedure.

“The tiny issues that emerge in enforcement we either explain or address them in law-making, introducing pin-pointed corrections to the law”, emphasized the Head of Moscow OFAS.