The Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation adopted Resolution No. 54 “On Certain Issues of Applying the General Provisions of the Russian Civil Code on Obligations and Their Performance”* on 22 November 2016.

The Resolution contains 59 paragraphs that clarify various provisions of the Russian Civil Code.

Among other things, the clarifications on the following issues are of interest to businesses from a practical perspective:

In Russian insolvency procedures, it is quite common for third parties to try to exclude property from a debtor’s insolvent estate (konkursnaya massa) by claiming title to its real property in the absence of the registered title. These third parties may refer to the agreements that had been made prior to the commencement of the insolvency procedure as well as to the actual transfer of property to them.

New grounds and conditions have been introduced to allow creditors to bring the executives and/or members of the management bodies of bankrupt Russian companies to subsidiary liability. This is expected to increase debtors’ assets that can be used to satisfy creditors’ claims as fully as possible. Also, any person will be able to find out whether bankruptcy procedures have been initiated against a legal entity by searching the * (the “Company Register”).

В июне 2017 г. вступят в силу поправки в законодательство, направленные на улучшение защиты прав кредиторов, что усилит борьбу со злоупотреблениями при банкротстве и ликвидации юридических лиц

DBI 2017 - A5 With Bleed.indd 3 20.02.2017 8:22:56 Doing Business in Russia 2017 Baker & McKenzie - CIS, Limited Moscow Office White Gardens, 10th Floor 9 Lesnaya Street Moscow 125047, Russia Telephone: +7 495 787 27 00 Fax: +7 495 787 27 01 [email protected] St. Petersburg Office BolloevCenter, 2nd Floor 4A Grivtsova Lane St.

The role of a bondholders’ representative (BR) improves the protection of bondholders’ rights and provides additional oversight of the execution of the issuer’s bond obligations. Let’s look at some of the practical aspects of BR activities.

Non-default period of a deal

The main BR responsibility during a regular deal period (when there is no default or signs of it) is to oversee the issuer’s activities and inform third parties. The law offers no list of events that a BR should control.

Introduction

On 25 July 2016, the White & Case team obtained, at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (the "Supreme Court"), a declaration that a secured creditor has the right to reduce, at its discretion, the amount of a secured claim during receivership and, as a consequence, the right to vote at meetings of the debtor's creditors.

In October 2016, the Chamber for Commercial Disputes at the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation considered the cassation appeal of Eurasian Trading Company LLC (hereinafter – the Trading Company) in Case № А57-16992/2015 against the court’s refusal to introduce monitoring procedures with respect to RBP JSC (hereinafter – the Debtor) and decision to dismiss the application by the Trading Company without consideration.

22 ноября 2016 года Пленум Верховного Суда Российской Федерации издал Постановление № 54 «О некоторых вопросах применения общих положений Гражданского кодекса Российской Федерации об обязательствах и их исполнении».

Постановление содержит 59 пунктов, содержащих разъяснения различных положений Гражданского кодекса РФ. 

Практический интерес для бизнеса, помимо прочего, представляют разъяснения по следующим вопросам:

In December 2014 Russia’s Federal Law “On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)” was  significantly amended to introduce bankruptcy of individuals and modify the  rules for bankruptcy of legal entities.  The amendments related to bankruptcy of legal entities came into effect on  29 January 2015.