Federation Council backs bill on restrictive measures against foreign property
MOSCOW. Aug 7 (Interfax) - The bill on measures taken in response to the seizure of Russian property, which was submitted by the government to the State Duma, is aimed at preventing unfriendly actions by foreign countries, Senator Konstantin Dobrynin said.
"The government proposes to emphasize once again by its bill the principle of functional restricted immunity," the deputy head of the committee on constitutional legislation told reporters on Thursday.
Dobrynin said "this immunity is already working in Russia." "And the government-proposed bill introducing restrictive measures against foreign property in response to the illegitimate seizure of Russian property abroad is aimed primarily at preventing unfriendly actions by foreign countries against legal entities and private individuals," he said.
He said that the Federation Council backs this bill and will debate it on a priority basis.
"By adopting this document the state wants to say: bear in mind that, if you take unfriendly actions against Russia, we will do the same. While adopting this law, we should also develop a new international convention giving any country the right to set restrictions in the event of property seizure in the territory of other countries," Dobrynin said.
He believes this will rule out the very possibility of ungrounded seizures of state property. "For more effective protection of interests abroad, the principle of legal work on projects similar to the dispute on the lawsuits filed by the former shareholders of the oil company Yukos should also be changed dramatically," the senator said.
The government previously submitted to the State Duma a bill envisaging the possibility of restricting on the principle of mutuality the immunity of foreign states from rulings issues by Russian courts on property issues.
According to the explanatory note attached to the bill, "it is proposed to establish a legal regime of jurisdictional immunity of a foreign state and its property in the territory of the Russian Federation."
"In accordance with the norms of international law and the legislation and judicial practice of foreign countries, the bill establishes limits for jurisdictional immunity of foreign states and their property. It also determines situations when foreign states and their property do not enjoy jurisdictional immunity and envisages the possibility of a foreign state's refusal of jurisdictional immunity," the document says.
