Disclosure by companies of their real owners will require development of new legal mechanisms
The Government has sent for review to the State Duma a draft bill that would require companies to collect, store, and update information about their ultimate owners, and ten, if necessary, to provide this info upon request to government agencies. For failure to fulfil these requirements, they could face fines of up to half a million roubles. However, companies cannot always tell who their beneficiaries really are – say the experts at Pravo.ru, pointing out the weaknesses of this initiative. These weaknesses include complex ownership chains, legal entities registered offshore, and finally, legal restrictions present in other countries – all these can become obstacles to achieving the intended goals of the government, without an additional arsenal of stratagems or new amendments to legislation.