Both draft laws are based on proposals from the Working Group to Monitor and Analyse Law Enforcement Practice in Entrepreneurial Activity, established in accordance with the Presidential instruction of February 16, 2016.
The draft Federal Law On Amendments to the Criminal Code and the Criminal Procedural Code aims to help put in place the conditions for creating a favourable business climate in Russia, reduce potential risks involved in entrepreneurial activity, and exclude the possibility for pressuring business using criminal prosecution.
The draft law will amend the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedural Code by increasing the amount of damage considered grounds for opening a criminal case for economic crimes, increasing the threshold amount of unpaid taxes sufficient for opening a criminal case for tax crimes, and allowing businesspeople taken into custody or put under house arrest to see a notary.
The draft law will also make amendments aimed at implementing the Russian Constitutional Court decision of December 11, 2014, which identified unconstitutional aspects of the rules on criminal liability for fraud in entrepreneurial activity.
Adoption of this draft federal law will put in place real conditions for compensating damage caused by entrepreneurs’ unlawful actions and free businesspeople from criminal liability for economic crimes, provide additional guarantees of entrepreneurs’ rights and protection of their business interests while criminal cases are in progress, and prevent potential abuses by officials carrying out criminal prosecution of entrepreneurs.
The amendments contained in the draft Federal Law On Amendments to Article 18 of the Federal Law On Detention of Persons Suspected and Accused of Committing Crimes and Article 7.27 of the Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation concern guarantees for the right of entrepreneurs in custody to see a notary and will bring the legislation into conformity with the Constitutional Court ruling of December 11, 2014.