09.01.2023
19:02

2022 Results

– This year has been unexpected and disturbing. It has largely changed the rules of the game in the market, of course, for political reasons. I would single out a few key points. Firstly, the cessation of the influx of foreign, primarily Western, investment in Russia. At the same time, the departure of foreign and international companies has created a multiple increase in the volume of work for lawyers in the field of M&A and real estate, accompanying transactions for the purchase and sale of Russian divisions of foreign companies and their assets to Russian buyers.

In an emergency mode, we analyzed non-standard situations and assessed the legal risks of clients that arose due to the need to comply with the requirements of regulations, the provisions of which often directly contradicted each other. However it happened like this: as soon as we figure out the content of some sanctions, the following ones are introduced, and belated clarifications change or cancel the conditions of the previous ones. All this had to be done practically in real time mode, since many situations required business to make immediate decisions. For example, if a product is ready for shipment to a foreign buyer, is it worth holding it, violating contractual terms and possibly losing a counterparty, or is it still worth shipping, risking not receiving payment for it? Everyone was frantically checking what and to whom sanctions and restrictions apply, and who can continue to do business without risking being held accountable for violating currency legislation.

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