OREANDA-NEWS. October 03, 2008. Pursuant to the Order of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) № 793-k of August 11, 2008 the new Department - Anti-Cartel Department was established in the FAS Russia structure, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The establishment of the given Department was preceded by the meeting of the Head of the FAS Russia Mr. Igor Yu. Artemiev with the Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Mr. Vladimir V. Putin during which the latter demanded to act more toughly against the violators of the antimonopoly legislation, primarily in respect of organizers and participants of cartel collusions.

Mr. Alexander Yu. Kinev, who headed the Department for State Service and Staff of the FAS Russia before, was appointed the Head of the Anti-Cartel Department of the FAS Russia. Two strategic goals are set for new Department - activating of the work on revealing and investigation of cartels (agreements restricting competition/concerted practices - Article 11 of the Law "On Protection of Competition") and strengthening collaboration with the enforcement authorities (the Ministry of Interior, the Office of the Attorney General).

Mainly to the importance of the goals of the Department' activity the number of persons, who would like to work in the Department, largely exceeded the number of vacant positions. The Anti-Cartel Department was staffed within the short period of time. Mr. Konstantine E. Lyubimov and Mr. Michael I. Mamaev, who occupied the leading positions in the Central Office and the Department for Economic Security of the Ministry of Interior before, were appointed the Deputy Heads of the Department. The representatives of the FAS Russia' Regional Offices, law enforcement authorities, tax authorities and judicial system joined the Department. 4 PhDs and 4 persons pretending to have this degree work in the Department.

The following three tactical goals could be marked out among the tasks of the Department:

- participation of the Department within its competence in the elaboration and approval by the Government and legislative authorities of draft legal initiatives aimed at strengthening the FAS Russia' powers and increase of its effectiveness (Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - criminal liability for cartel collusion; Code of Administrative Violations of the Russian Federation - clarification of the FAS Russia' powers on imposing the administrative liability for participation in a cartel; the Law № 135-FZ "On Protection of Competition" - expansion of the antimonopoly authority' powers at conducting inspections, etc);

- actual launching of the "leniency program" for the persons that voluntary informed the antimonopoly authority on the facts of agreements restricting competition and concerted practices;

- examination of the several priority, from the social importance point of view, markets aimed at reveling the fact of absence or presence of cartel agreements among their participants.

"The term "cartel" has the synonym in Russian, that is "collusion" - says the Head of the Department Mr. Alexander Kinev. "Besides, there is a tougher synonym - "a plot". The danger of these economic plots has been already understood in Russia for a long period of time. That is why the first antimonopoly provision that appeared in the Russian legislation was aimed at suppression of the given violations. The Article 913 of the Code of punishments of the Russian Empire of 1845 sets 4-8 months imprisonment or 3 weeks - 3 months arrest or cash fine as the liability for "the collusion, deal or other agreement of traders on price increase".

"Having the additional profit not at the cost of more intensive work or innovations but at the cost of collusion on prices or division of markets the participant of the cartel are becoming parasites. This additional profit doesn't emerge from nothing. It is withdrawn from consumers and state pockets. This is not only a violation of the competition principles, this is unfairness. For Russia where the citizens have special attitude towards the notion of "fair", it is much more important. Having the goal to make our activity more clear for the society, we always say that through combating cartels we protect both competition principles and principles of justice".