Draft Federal Law No.833158-6 “On procedure for promoting interests of business organizations and individual entrepreneurs in state and municipal bodies” was submitted to the State Duma of the Russian Federation on July 7, 2015 (hereinafter the “Draft Law”).

At present, the Russian legislation does not have regulations in place which apply to activity on promoting interests of business organizations before state authorities (lobbyism). According to the authors of the Draft Law, the legislative regulations on lobbyism will allow establishing effective cooperation between business and government, overcoming the legislative “vacuum” as regards lobbyism, and will also remove the “grey areas” with potential for corruption.

The Draft Law’s authors propose establishing regulations under which the promotion of interests of business organizations before state authorities is to be performed through professional lobby representatives.

The promotion of interests, according to the Draft Law, means verbal cooperation or cooperation in writing of a lobby representative with an official of a state or municipal authority with the aim of influencing the said authorities to draft regulatory acts and adopt political, economic, administrative and other solutions in the interests of the business organization or individual entrepreneur being represented.

According to the Draft Law, only an individual entrepreneur who joined a self-regulatory organization of lobby representatives and performing professional activity on promoting interests can act as a representative of interests.

It should be noted that in order to engage a lobby representative, a company must sign a civil-law contract with such representative, where the parties specify the goal of the lobbying, as well as the officials with whom the cooperation of the lobby representative is assumed.

The Draft Law establishes an exhaustive list of officials with whom the lobby representative is entitled to cooperate. In particular, the list includes:

• The President of the Russian Federation;
• Members of the Federal Assembly and legislative bodies of the Russian regions;
• Heads of federal executive bodies;
• Chief executive officials of the Russian regions and others.

At the same time, the text of the Draft Law does not specify whether business organizations are restricted from representing themselves before state authorities without using the services of the lobby representative.

It should be noted that adoption of the Draft Law may lead to a need for comprehensive amendments to the Russian law, aimed at regulating the activity of the self-regulatory organizations of lobby representatives, as well as at establishing the liability for violating the law on lobbyism.

Dmitry Churin   Senior Associate   St. Petersburg       Tel.: +7 (812) 346 79 90

Ekaterina Chernenkova   Associate    St. Petersburg       Tel.: +7 (812) 346 79 90

Additional notes

Should any questions arise in connection with the above or if you need any additional materials, please contact Dmitry Churin or Ekaterina Chernenkova, St. Petersburg Office of Capital Legal Services.

This Information letter keeps the clients of Capital Legal Services and other interested parties abreast of information that may, to any extent, affect their activity or cater to their particular interests. The opinions and commentaries expressed in this information letter shall not be deemed as legal opinions and do not cancel the need to obtain legal advice or legal opinion on separate issues.