Russian Law Talks 4 – Protection of Foreign Investment in Russia

12 May 2021

Time: 16:00 (Helsinki time)

Via Zoom

Event description:

In 2020, Russian regulators made further steps at creating an attractive regime for doing business. According to the World Bank, Russia has improved its business climate (it climbed three places and now ranks 28 out of 190 countries). At the same time, foreign investments in Russia plummeted. The flow of foreign direct investment in Russia has decreased 96% in 2020 ($1.4 billion in 2020 compared to $29 billion in 2019). This trend partly reflects the global decline of foreign direct investments on 42% in 2020 influenced by the COVID-19. In 2020, Russian legislation introduced new measures aimed at easing the life of foreign investors. The measures ranged from substantive law changes to shaping a new regime for dispute resolution. The experts will talk about the current trends in regulations affecting foreign investment in Russia, including the introduction of Agreements on protection and encouragement of investments into Russian Law, and the arbitration reform.

Speakers:

Leonid Kropotov, PhD, Legal Director at DLA Piper
Leonid is a legal director at international law firm DLA Piper. He has over 15 years’ experience in handling cross-border disputes (both litigation and arbitration) and M&A transactions. Leonid is an author of a monography on investments and a series of articles on international arbitration. He is holding PhD in Law from St. Petersburg State University and teaches there a post-graduate course and a master program on resolution of international disputes, investments and M&A.

Vladimir Talanov, Counsel at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners
Vladimir is a Counsel at Egorov Puginsky Afanasiev & Partners Law Offices. He is a recognized expert in international trade law and provides clients with support in structuring international investment projects. Vladimir took part in developing a number of federal laws, including the Federal Law “On Industrial Policy in the Russian Federation” and the Federal Law “On Protection and Encouragement of Investment in the Russian Federation”. Alongside his law practice, Vladimir teaches at the National Research University “Higher School of Economics” and St. Petersburg State University, where he lectures on public international law, international trade, cross-border dispute settlement and regional economic integration.

Russian Law Talks 2 – Gender and Protest

Gender and Protest in Russia

8 March 2021 14.00-16.00 EET (Helsinki)

Zoom

Watch the seminar here:

https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/a04fd5ab-f3cb-4895-bd4a-415a962860d7

Since 2011 Russians are back on the streets expressing their opinion of the regime and protesting its new laws and measures. The authorities have chosen the path of criminalisation of the protest activities which increased the number of arrests and introduced harsher punishments for using the constitutionally guaranteed right of the freedom of assembly. Since the Pussy Riot’s anti-Putin prayer, women have become increasingly visible in the protests.

OVD-INFO, an independent media project that monitors protests in the Russian Federation, upon the request of the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, created a special report on women’s participation in the protests. A team of experts and scholars will be discussing the report and wider issues related to gender and protest in Russia on 8 March 2021 at 14.00-16.00 EET (Helsinki).

Main presentation:

Denis Shedov and Natalia Smirnova, OVD INFO

Violations of the Right to Peaceful Assembly for Women and Girls in Russia from 2010 to 2020. A Report for the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association

Discussion:

Olga Zeveleva, University of Helsinki

Aleksandra Rumyantseva, Centre for Advanced Governance, Russia

Andrei Semenov, Yale Macmillan Center, Yale University

Dmitry Kurnosov, Carlsberg Fellow, University of Helsinki

Russian Law Talks 1 – The Arctic Environment, Sounds, and Posthuman Laws

The Arctic Environment, Sounds, and Posthuman Laws

16 February 2021

Time: 16:00 (Helsinki time)

Watch the seminar here:

https://www2.helsinki.fi/fi/unitube/video/8fccefbf-7880-4ea7-abd2-fc9ca61c77d3

Please join us for a discussion on contemporary issues in the Russian Arctic and its changing environments. Dr. Elena Cirkovic will host the session and present on the interactions between different global-local legal regimes, posthumanism, and indigenous perspectives on the region.

Dr. Roza Laptander will present her research on sounds in Siberian culture.

Susanna Pirnes will present her ongoing doctoral research on the topic “Identity utopias carried by arctic history politics”.

Biographies:

Dr. Roza Laptander’s research interests are based on sociolinguistics, and linguistic anthropology, documentating the Nenets language and spoken history of the Western Siberian Nenets. In her work she describes the Nenets memories about the past and their present life in the Yamal tundra.

Dr. Elena Cirkovic’s research project focuses on sustainable uses of outer space and its interactions with the Earth System and climate change monitoring.

Ms Susanna Pirnes works on Arctic identity formation, focusing on memory politics and the use of history in the development of current Russian Arctic politics.

Update 5/2021: Susanna Pirnes asked for her part of the talk to be cut out.