On 7 April 2010, the Moscow Office of Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners hosted a private workshop CIS Expansion of Russian Business: Legal Practitioner’s View attended by six leading CIS laws firms members of the CIS Leading Counsel Network.

Abundant natural resources, geographical proximity and common infrastructure provide for important opportunities of economic integration of the CIS countries based on new market principles. Why do not such opportunities translate into real development of economic relations with our closest neighbours, who would often rather opt for partners and investors outside of ex-USSR? Is Russian business welcome in the CIS? What kind of mistakes are commonly made by the Russian business in entering local CIS markets? Which special aspects of legal regulations and business trade must be taken into account to build a successful investment strategy in the CIS countries?

These and other questions were answered by the leaders of the premium law firms from the CIS LCN, which daily advise on major transactions and investments projects in their jurisdictions and have the best insight about what should and what should not do Russian companies exploring such familiar and such unknown CIS space.

The workshop was attended by: Vladimir Dolzhnikov (Ashgabat Consulting Team, Turkmenistan), Gulnara Kalikova (Kalikova and Associates, Kyrgyzstan), Konstantin Mikhel (Vlasova Mikhel & Partners, Republic of Belarus), Irina Paliashvili (RULG Ukrainian Legal Group, Ukraine), Alexander Turcan (Turcan&Turcan, Moldavia) and Olga Chentsova (Aequitas, Kazakhstan). Dimitry Afanasiev (Egorov Afanasiev & Partners, Russia) moderated the event.

After the workshop concluded, all the delegates had the opportunity to talk personally to the speakers as part of individual meetings.