• General Information
• Economy
• Main State Authorities the Businesses Interact with

The Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as "RF"), or Russia, is a country situated in Eastern Europe and North Asia. Covering more than a ninth of the Earth's dry land area (17 075 400 square kilometers), Russia is the largest country in the world. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and about 40% of Europe, spanning nine time zones. Russia shares borders with 16 states: Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, and North Korea, Japan and the United States.

The state is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Commonwealth of Independent States and many other international organizations.

Russia is a federated state and comprises 83 constituent territories. The capital of the Russian Federation is Moscow. The other economic centers are: St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Omsk, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ufa, Volgograd, and Perm. The currency of the Russian Federation is ruble. One ruble is equal to 100 kopecks.

Russian mineral, energy and forest reserves are the largest in the world, and its lakes contain approximately one-quarter of all freshwater in the world.

Russia takes part in BRICS, which is a grouping acronym that refers to the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and Republic of South Africa, which are all deemed to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development. Therefore, it is attractive for manufacturers, builders, investors and other businessmen. At the same time, business in Russia requires awareness of different statutory provisions as they may be very specific and may differ from foreign enactments significantly.

Whereas Russia is a federated state and the citizens' rights for the local self-government have been recognized, the State has a three-level authority system:

• state government bodies;

• government bodies of constituent entities of the Federation;

• local government bodies.

The powers assigned to these government bodies are divided between them as stated in the Constitution of the Russian Federation and as provided for by the federal laws.

A system of power division is adopted in the Russian Federation. The following bodies are acting at the federal level of the state authorities:

• Legislative Branch is represented by the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, a bicameral parliament, comprising the State Duma and the Federation Council.

• Executive Branch is represented by the Government of the Russian Federation, the federal executive bodies and their respective territorial bodies.

• Judicial Branch comprises the Constitutional Court, the courts of general jurisdiction and the dedicated courts relating to economic disputes – the arbitration courts. Generally, the disputes arising out of entrepreneurial activities are being referred to arbitration. The system of arbitration courts of the Russian Federation includes:

1. the Supreme Commercial Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation;
2. federal district arbitration courts (arbitral courts of cassation);
3. appellate arbitration courts;
4. arbitration courts of first instance in constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

The President, according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, does not enter into any of the above-mentioned branches of the state authorities. However, the President is granted the wide spectrum of powers in the area of the executive branch.

It is the most common that the entrepreneurs have to deal with the executive bodies in the course of registration, licensing, undergoing various inspections, issuing shares, registration of real estate items, etc. The federal executive bodies comprise ministries, services and agencies.

Most often entrepreneurs interact with the following authorities:

• the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Federal Taxation Service, which is supervised by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation;

• the Federal Antimonopoly Service;

• the Federal Customs Service;

• the Federal Tariff Service;

• the Federal Service for Financial Markets;

• the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation and the Federal Migration Service, which is supervised by the latter;

• the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation;

• the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation and the Federal Bailiff Service supervised by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.

You could become familiar with the complete list of the federal executive bodies on the Official Site of the Government of the Russian Federation.

The lending (credit) institutions maintain close contacts with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, which exercises regulatory control over their activities.