OREANDA-NEWS. October 28, 2011. The State Duma approved in the second reading the draft Law “On Introducing Amendments to Article 6 of the Federal Law “On Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation” and the Federal Law “On the Procedures for Foreign Investments to Business Entities of Strategic Defence and National Security”, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

The draft Law devised by FAS Russia and other government authorities provides for:

- Excluding control over transactions between organizations controlled by Russian beneficiaries, as well as transactions involving international financial organizations, the list of which must be approved by the Government of the Russian Federation;

- Changing the criteria for location of economic entities under control of foreign investors in use of subsoil with federal status with 10 - 25 % voting shares (interest) of their authorized capital;

- Excluding the following from the list of strategic fields: operating radiation sources by economic entities in civilian sector, for which these activities are not mainstream, and banking activities (without participation of the Russian Federation) in information encryption;

- Simplifying the procedures for considering petitions by the Government Commission for Control over Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation and making decisions about preliminary approvals of transactions if there is an agreement between a foreign investor and FAS about fulfilling obligations set by the Government Commission.

“Overall, the draft Law is aimed at eliminating excessive administrative barriers for foreign investors who invests in strategic business entities, and also eliminates uncertainty in understanding and applying certain norms of the law”, explained Stats-Secretary Andrey Tsarikovskiy, Deputy Head of FAS.