September 2004
Sakhalin adopts new border zone regulations
Foreigners, nonresident Russians now need permit to enter
As of Aug. 3, foreigners and Russian nationals who reside outside the Sakhalin Region must obtain passes from Border Guard authorities to enter the border zone, our Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk office reports. The Sakhalin Administration’s new regulations apply to a five-kilometer-wide zone along the coastline of Sakhalin Island and Russian territorial waters adjacent to the island.
However, our Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk lawyers note: “The border zone does not affect the city of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the sites under oil and gas pipelines, two recreational areas (located between the settlement Peschansky and settlement Taranay of the Aniva District and cape Svobodny and settlement Okhotskoye of the Korsakov District) or the settlements Korsakov, Prigorodnoye, Kholmsk, Nevelsk, Okha, Nogliki, Aniva, Poronaysk, Makarov, Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Uglegorsk, Shakhtersk and Tomari within the borders of these settlements."
Improve Far East business climate, U.S. consul says
Changes could attract more foreign investment, she advises
The U.S. consul general in Vladivostok, Pamela Spratlen, recently urged local authorities in Russia’s Far East to improve the ways they deal with foreign business, reports Natalya Prisekina, of our Vladivostok office.
Prisekina lists 10 factors Spratlen said she believes need change if Primorye wants to make a climate more attractive for foreign investment:
• business opportunities in certain sectors of local market and infrastructure;
• ground conditions and atmosphere (attitude of local authorities toward foreign business);
• laws and regulations that would ensure transparency, equality and a stable investment climate;
• conditions for local business;
• infrastructure (railway and air communications);
• access to capital (banks, loans and movement of capital);
• service sector;
• an active press corps;
• businessmen's ideas how to penetrate the market;
• advocacy.
Spratlen also acknowledged that Primorye and Vladivostok have a lot of opportunities for foreign investors, Prisekina reports. Spratlen noted that, in 2003, sales of American companies in the Russian Far East reached 70 million US dollars.
Reforms
create new Antimonopoly Federal Service
Agency gets less authority than former ministry
As part of administrative reforms discussed in our last newsletter, the Russian Federation has created the Antimonopoly Federal Service, reports Rinat Zakirov-Ziev, of our Moscow office. “This agency will supervise compliance with legislation on competition in financial and commodities markets, on natural monopolies and on advertising,” he explains.
Igor Artemiev, a former member of the Lower Chamber of the Russian Parliament from a liberal party, “Yabloko,” will head the Service, Zakirov-Ziev adds.
“Federal services have lower status in the government hierarchy than federal ministries, and normally are subordinate to some federal ministry,” Zakirov-Ziev explains. “However, the Antimonopoly Federal Service is not included in any federal ministry. Its head will report directly to the Prime Minister, Mikhail Fradkov.”
The newborn Service received limited authority, compared to the former Ministry of Antimonopoly Policy, Zakirov-Ziev reports. “The most noteworthy changes are exclusion of control over commodities exchanges, supervision of compliance with consumer rights laws, and support of entrepreneurship,” he notes.
© 2004 Russin & Vecchi, LLP