Vassily Rudomino, Senior partner of ALRUD, Ksenia Tarkhova and Ruslana Karimova, Senior associate of ALRUD, Roman Vedernikov, Associate of ALRUD, and Anastasia Kayukova, ALRUD Senior attorney, prepared an article for the eighth edition of 'The Foreign Investment Regulation Review' by Law Business Research.

This review focuses on the main aspects of foreign investment regulation in various jurisdictions. Experts from recognized law firms shared their vision of the investment climate in the countries they represent. ALRUD specialists were the authors of the Russian chapter. The experts highlighted the main legal forms of foreign investments, regulatory restrictions in respect of the foreign investors, including national security clearance of transactions, as well as the protection of the rights of foreign investors in Russia. In addition, the chapter contains an analysis of the legislative developments and enforcement practices in the area of foreign investments.

I. INTRODUCTION

Attracting foreign investment has been a priority for the Russian government since the country took its first steps towards developing a market economy in 1991. During the past few decades, consistent legislative and administrative measures have been taken to improve the investment climate and provide guarantees and protection for foreign companies undertaking business in Russia. This trend remains effective and has been maintained by the government within the period of mutual economic sanctions, since investment in Russia is encouraged and supported despite the political alienation between Russia and European countries.

After the economic crisis in 2008, when investment dropped to US$81 billion, the amount of investment had almost doubled by 2012, up to US$154 billion. The statistics for 2013 showed a rapid growth in foreign investment – up to US$170 billion. After a period of moderate growth, Russia's economy slowed again in 2014 following the introduction of sanctions against Russia and a drop in oil prices, which significantly affected the investment climate, although the overall macroeconomic situation remained favourable. In the first half of 2015, the Russian economy continued to founder, but starting from the second half of 2015 and 2016, there was a steady growth in the number of foreign investments.

The full text of the article can be found here.