Joint letter of the AEB, RSPP and other business associations on criminal liability for sanctions enforcement
07.04.2022
On April 5, 2022, the AEB, together with the RSPP and other business associations, sent an appeal to the Speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko and Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin regarding the initiative to introduce criminal liability for following the sanctions.
Business associations were very concerned about the news about the submission to the State Duma of a bill on criminal liability for heads of commercial and other organizations for following the sanctions imposed on the Russian Federation by Western countries.
In the opinion of business circles, this measure neutralizes the previous efforts of the Government of the Russian Federation aimed at keeping foreign business in Russia. Many representatives of foreign top management play a key role in maintaining contacts with representatives of business and political circles abroad. To some extent they form public opinion and constitute a source of objective information about the state of affairs in Russia, that is important in the context of the current information deficit. The introduction of criminal liability, which may directly affect them, will not contribute to maintaining of these communication channels and, most likely, will push foreign investors to the decision to terminate their investment activities in Russia.