Russia to pass legislation on investors' rights this year

The State Duma is likely to pass a number of laws concerning investors' rights in the near future, according to Sergei Generalov, a member of the National Council for Corporate Governance and chairman of the Duma's Committee on Investors' Rights. In a statement last week Generalov said that the main reason for the low level of investment flowing into Russia was the low standard of corporate governance in Russian companies. However, he suggested that the situation has begun to change, saying that the government has realised that 'it is absolutely essential to improve property protection mechanisms.'

Generalov said that several bills, including a bill 'On limited companies', have recently been debated in parliament. Nevertheless, he believes that a number of other laws are needed to 'create a full legal foundation for protecting investors' rights.' Generalov sees that most important of these as a law on insider trading and a law on affiliated organisations. A number of important amendments also need to be made to existing legislation. Generalov said that these concern dividend payments, improvements to the judicial system and judicial reform.