Corporate anti-sanctions measures designed to help business adapt, extension unjustified - Economy Development Ministry

MOSCOW. Oct 30 (Interfax) - Temporary corporate anti-sanctions measures were introduced in 2022 to help business adapt to the new conditions rather than as a new norm to be constantly applied throughout the period of increased pressure, and their extension would be unjustified, head of the Economy Development Ministry corporate regulation department Mikhail Beshtoyev said.

As part of the measures introduced in the spring of 2022 due to threats of an expansion in sanctions against Russia, companies were given the right to hide information about themselves fully - though the extent of this was limited by Governmental Decree No. 1102 in July 2023 - and conduct meetings in absentia, while the minimum stake entitling a shareholder to request documents and challenge deals was raised from 1% to 5%, as well as several other changes. Now, most of these measures have either been transformed or terminated. For example, not all companies were granted the right to hold annual shareholders meetings in absentia in 2025, but rather those which met criteria set by the Russian government; the rest had to either go back to in-person meetings or make use of a new option - online meetings.

"These [temporary anti-sanctions] measures were aimed at preventively lowering the risks of non-friendly states exerting this negative impact on Russian companies," Beshtoyev said at a Federal Council meeting entitled Current Issues of Corporate Management.

He said that they were not brought in as eternal measures to be applied throughout a period of pressure, but as measures providing companies with the "chance to stop and take a look at their corporate practices, and adapt where necessary". As time passes, their extension might no longer have a significant effect in response to pressure from sanctions.

"These measures, which we took in order to allow companies time to adapt, have already had their impact, their effect. Companies had time to adapt to the situation which we are in," Beshtoyev said.

He said in his speech that the Economy Development Ministry was not in favor of extending the anti-sanctions measures effective in 2022-2024.

The Finance Ministry shares this view, Andrei Vorontsov, director of the Finance Ministry's property relations management department, said at the meeting. "We have come to the conclusion that we have not seen enough justifications to decide on and propose extending the measures," he said.