The decree is directed primarily at small and medium businesses.
The Russian Government has been given a two-month deadline to submit to the State Duma draft laws increasing protection of the rights of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs during inspections and cutting back the number of scheduled inspections to once every three years (except for tax inspections). Unscheduled inspections should be permitted only for the purpose of ascertaining violations that present a direct threat to people’s lives or health, and only with the approval of the prosecutor’s office. Interior Ministry bodies should not be allowed to carry out any inspections of small and medium business that do not come within the scope of their competence.
The number of permits needed to carry out business activity should be reduced and compulsory certification should be replaced by a manufacturer’s declaration of the quality of the goods produced. Opening a business should be done primarily through a notification-based procedure. Licenses for some types of business activity will be replaced by mandatory liability insurance or the provision of financial guarantees.
The decree also issues the necessary instructions to the plenipotentiary presidential envoys in the federal districts.