Russia's State Duma rules against ban on taxi services under direct or indirect foreign control

MOSCOW. Dec 21 (Interfax) - An amendment limiting foreign control over taxi services was turned down at a State Duma meeting on Wednesday

In the course of the second hearing of a government bill regulating taxi aggregators in Russia, the State Duma rejected the amendment, which "does not allow Russian legal entities, whose decisions can be directly or indirectly controlled by foreign persons, foreign legal entities, foreign states and their authorities, and foreign investors, to provide taxi services with the exception of cases specified by a federal law or presidential orders."

The amendment was put to a vote by its author, State Duma Transport Committee Chairman Yevgeny Moskvichev, who said he would like to withdraw it.

Initially, the State Duma Transport Committee recommended that the amendment be approved.

This amendment could have affected Yandex.Taxi, one of the largest taxi market players, a joint venture of Yandex and the U.S. company Uber Technologies, registered in the Netherlands. Yandex may soon conduct restructuring to divide its Russian and foreign businesses, but it is now unclear how it will affect the future of the joint venture.