Publications

Since 1991, Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s largest economy and oil producer, has had to rely on the deteriorating infrastructure it inherited from the Soviet Union. As a result, nearly every piece of public infrastructure (e.g., roads, hospitals, power plants, kindergartens, sewerage) in Kazakhstan requires a different degree of upgrading or expansion. It is expected that proper PPPs and project finance deals will finally take off in Kazakhstan in the near future, firstly because proper legislation on PPPs has been put in place in 2015 and, secondly, after decades of neglect, the government of Kazakhstan has finally not only declared, but seems to confirm its readiness to improve the investment climate and to attract private investments through PPPs (including into the housing and utilities sector) and decided to invest at least part of the wealth from commodity exports in long-postponed infrastructure projects.

As of 1 January 2018, the Instruction No. 181-I of August 16, 2017 of Bank of Russia establishing the procedure for the submission by Russian residents and non-residents to authorised banks of supporting documents and information on the performance of currency transactions, as well as unified forms of accounting and reporting on currency transactions, the procedure and timing of their submission becomes effective. In particular, the requirement to submit a transaction passport by Russian residents with an authorised bank is cancelled, instead, the procedure for registering foreign trade contracts with banks with unique numbers being assigned to them is established.

The Federation Council approved on 22 November 2017 the draft Federal Law amending the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection" and the Law of the Russian Federation "On Mass Media" for the purposes of the regulation of foreign media in Russia.

Amendments to the Federal Law No. 149-FZ of 27 July 2006 "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection", which came into force on 1 October  2017, provide, inter alia, for the administrative procedure for restricting access to copies of Internet sites blocked by a decision of the Moscow City Court in connection with the repeated and illegal  placement of information containing copyright and (or) related rights, or information necessary to get access thereto (so-called mirror sites).

GRATA International is launching a new practice in Russia - White-Collar Crime. In keeping with GRATA International's practice of informing about important legal developments that might affect their business, we highlight the impact of criminal law on business in Russian Federation.

GRATA International Kazakhstan contributed to the International Comparative Legal Guide series - Mining Law 2018 with the chapter on Kazakhstan.