Forte Tax & Law launches a new practice: legal support for the Fuel and Energy Complex (FEC). One of its top priorities will be protecting the rights of gas distribution companies (GDCs) in their relations with the Unified Gasification Operator (UGO). Evgenii Kozhevin, an expert in legal support for oil and gas companies, will head this practice. He previously held senior positions in the legal divisions of Gazprom Group and is the author of an analytical series of articles on legal issues related to pre-gasification.

Evgenii Kozhevin’s first initiative as head of the practice was to host a webinar, “FIRST CLASS ACTION AGAINST GAZPROM IN RUSSIA: A Unification of GDCs vs. UGO,” on June 26, 2025. Participants discussed today’s key issues between the UGO and independent gas distribution companies (IGDCs), and ways to resolve their disagreements.

If you would like to receive the webinar materials, please email us.

On May 29, 2025, the Russian Ministry of Finance published a draft federal law that introduces a new procedure for calculating income tax for Russian members of large multinational enterprise groups (MNEs)—that is, a national equivalent of the Global Anti-Base Erosion Model Rules (Pillar Two).[1] If adopted, the new rules will take effect as early as January 1, 2026.

Read here a brief overview of this draft federal law.

Amendments to the Russian Labor Code (Federal Law No. 144-FZ dated June 7, 2025) will take effect on September 1, 2025. These amendments will clarify the requirements for employers’ local policies and procedures regarding bonus payments to employees. These changes aim to eliminate arbitrary reductions in employee payments and align the provisions of the Russian Labor Code with the position of the Russian Constitutional Court.[1]

These are the key innovations:

The types of bonuses, their amounts, the time limits, grounds, and conditions for paying bonuses to employees are to be determined by the employer’s local policies and procedures.
When establishing a bonus system, quality, efficiency, and duration of work, as well as whether an employee is subject to any disciplinary sanction, are to be taken into account.
A bonus may be reduced if the reduction is related to a disciplinary sanction and applies to the accrued bonus for the period (g., the month), in which the sanction was applied. The reduction cannot decrease the employee’s monthly earnings by more than 20%.

Are gas distribution companies left unprotected when courts refuse to enforce the recovery of loans?

In his new article, Evgenii Kozhevin provides a step-by-step guide on how to make the Unified Gasification Operator:

• perform an agreement and issue a loan
• compensate for losses by paying interest under agreements with other lenders

Who will find this article useful?

• CEOs of gas distribution companies and their lawyers
• Investors in the gas industry
• Law firms

Read the full article here (in Russian).

On May 21, 2025, a draft law was published for its second reading. It outlines special considerations that would apply to foreign investors wishing to exercise their right to acquire (buy back) the shares (interests) previously held in Russian companies (the “Draft Law”) [1].

The Draft Law stipulates that a special procedure will apply when a foreign investor[2] retains the right to buy back shares (interests) in a Russian company and the purchaser in the transaction is a Russian citizen, a Russian company or a foreign company from a so-called “friendly country” [3] that is controlled by a Russian citizen.

Pravo.ru publishes the results of an international survey on Russian law firms’ projects abroad

For this survey, Forte Tax & Law submitted 18 projects completed in seven jurisdictions. Three of these projects were among the top 10 most popular jurisdictions by the number of projects in the Pravo.ru survey.

As part of these projects, Forte Tax & Law lawyers handled cases involving foreign trade/customs law and currency regulation, tax law, corporate law/mergers and acquisitions (M&A), regulatory law, and family and inheritance law. Four of these practices ranked among the top 10 most popular practices by the number of projects carried out in foreign jurisdictions.

The Forte Tax & Law team made it to Group 3 of the regional survey according to the overall standings.

If you have any questions about operating in foreign jurisdictions, please direct them to Anton Kabakov.

Effective May 30, 2025, key changes introduced by Federal Law No. 420-FZ[1] will affect the processing and protection of personal data. The law will tighten control over the processing of personal data, introducing new types of offenses and record-high fines of up to RUB 500 million, or up to 3% of a company’s annual revenue. As you may remember, criminal penalties[2] for violating Russian personal data protection laws were established effective from December 11, 2024[3]. Criminalized actions include unauthorized access to, destruction, blocking, or modification of data as computer systems. Examples include hacking a database, deleting a file containing personal data, blocking access to them.

The main changes in administrative liability[4] pertain to compliance with personal data processing requirements.

Anton Kabakov, Partner at Forte Tax & Law, gave a presentation on “Instructions for Surviving in Cross-Border Payments. New Settlement Mechanisms in the Context of Tightened Foreign Exchange Controls”.

Since this is a very important issue for many companies in Russia, we have decided to address it at several events:

• The Industrialist Day 2025 Conference, hosted by the German-Russian Chamber of Commerce (AHK Russland) on April 22, 2025 as part of its traditional week in St. Petersburg, which featured discussions on the current situation in Russia’s industrial production, the impact of sanctions on imports and exports, payment difficulties, opportunities for expansion into new markets, project financing, and human resources.
• The 6th Annual Financial Directors Forum, hosted by Kommersant Publishing House on April 24, 2025, which focused on current trends, opportunities for transforming financial strategies for companies, liaison with regulatory agencies, and many other issues. 

If you are facing difficulties in cross-border payments, please send an email to Anton Kabakov.

On April 18, 2025, a List of Presidential Instructions was published, which includes an instruction to develop a special procedure for the return of foreign companies[1] to Russia, and an instruction to maintain a list of foreign companies that have curtailed or discontinued operations in Russia after February 22, 2022[2].

It is anticipated that a special procedure will be established for the following transactions (operations) involving persons from so-called “unfriendly countries”:

Acquisition of real estate by persons from “unfriendly countries” for the purpose of owning, possessing, or using such real estate to conduct business activities in Russia;
Acquisition by persons from “unfriendly countries” of the rights to directly or indirectly dispose of shares (interests) in companies, or other rights that would enable them to determine the conditions of management of such companies and/or the conditions of their business activities.

What will happen to the previously granted buyback options?

On April 22, 2025, in St. Petersburg, Delovoy Peterburg newspaper announced the results of the contest “Legal Top: Team Score 2025”.Law firms based in St. Petersburg participate in the competition and submit their cases to be judged by a panel of experts.

The Forte Tax & Law team was awarded with a winner’s diploma in the category “Non-Petersburg Cases of Petersburg Lawyers” and took second place in the category “Legal Practices – Corporate Law”.

Congratulations to the winners and participants of the contest!

To read the full article, click here (in Russian).