Russia imposes new measures in response to expanding Western sanctions

On March 8th 2022, the RF government introduced several new measures in response to continuing sanctions being imposed by Western states on the RF. On this day, the RF government proclaimed a proposal to designate an external administration for addressing issues related to foreign companies that have left the RF. The government formalized a draft federal law “On the External Administration of the Management of the Organization”, under which an external administration could be assigned for an entity if: it’s at least 25% owned or controlled by one or some persons from unfriendly states and the book value of it’s assets exceeds 1 billion RUB (as of the last reporting date), or, the average numbers of it’s workers in the month preceding the application for the designation of such external administration is more than 100. The draft sets out the grounds on which such external administration can be appointed as well as the consequences of such appointment. It should be said, that the goal of such external administration is to recognize and transfer all licenses, employees and assets of the entity to a newly incorporated subsidiary for the sale of the latter within an auction and for advancing the bankruptcy or liquidation of the entity.

In addition, on this day, RF president signed decree No. 100 “On the Application of Special Economic Measures in the Sphere of Foreign Economic Activity to Ensure the Security of the Russian Federation” following which the RF government is due to publish lists of raw materials and products that are prohibited for importation to or exportation from the RF up till October 31st 2022. Furthermore, on the same day, the RF government enacted Federal Law No. 46-FZ that authorizes it to suspend specific intellectual property rights, such as particular exclusivity related protections and several other rights. More information on the measures adopted by the RF on March 8th 2022 can be found in Russian here and here.