“Gray Schemes” for Establishing Foreign Control Over Strategic Business Companies

Abstract

 The article discusses current issues of limiting foreign participation in certain sectors of the economy.Based on the analysis of law enforcement and judicial practice, the author identifies various types of “gray schemes” for establishing foreign control over strategic companies, which are proposed to be understood as ways of organizing and implementing a set of transactions and other actions of foreign investors and legal entities and individuals belonging to the same group of persons with them, committed in circumvention of the law and the result of which is the establishment of foreign control over strategic companies, carried out, as a rule, in veiled forms hidden from the state in the person of authorized bodies.In general foreign investors comply with the requirements of Russian legislation, acting in good faith and acquiring assets of Russian companies in compliance with established restrictions and licensing procedures, while the number of legal transactions in the period 2008—2023 significantly exceeds the number of illegal transactions.