Pursuant to the statute, off-market deals with an exchange commodity from the government-approved list shall be registered in the course of trading for the commodity in question at commodity exchanges that meet the requirements of Russian legislation on commodity exchanges.

The State Duma Property Committee on February 22 advised the lower house of parliament to pass in the first reading a bill that will allow banks partly or fully owned by the state to acquire privatized state or municipal property for their branches.

The State Duma on February 25 passed on second reading the bill “On Electronic Signature” and the appropriate amendments to the Russian law. The electronic signature bills were submitted to the State Duma by a group of Russian legislators led by State Duma First Deputy Speaker Oleg Morozov.

Currently, there are over 6 000 officially recognized internal structural subdivisions of credit institutions in the Moscow region that have licenses authorizing them to carry out operations in foreign currency.

The Ministry suggests updating the list by adding equipment and technologies meant for energy-efficient oil extraction, equipment for the reduction of oil consumption for technical needs, optimizing the operation of wells, advancing oil metering, facilities for oil refining, and for transporting oil and oil products.

The State Duma has passed on first reading a government-proposed bill aimed at improving the state regulation of the production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcohol, and alcohol-containing products, and also beer and alcohol-containing drinks.