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Article19 October 2026Corporate law

Expelling a member from an LLC: when the court will back you

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

Expelling a member is a measure of last resort and the courts apply it rarely: what is needed is not a clash of personalities but proven harm to the company. A shareholder dispute rarely reaches a lawyer's office at an early stage.

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Article17 October 2026IT, telecoms and digital

Drones in terms of service: who waived liability and what to do

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

In 2026 Russian cloud providers, Yandex, marketplaces and car-sharing services wrote drones, air defence and power-grid failures into their standard terms. I look at what exactly changed, which of the new clauses will hold up in court and which are void, and what consumers, businesses and the companies themselves should do.

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Article12 October 2026Finance and banking

Your account blocked after crypto transactions: what to do

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

An account is rarely blocked out of the blue: the bank watches the transactions for several weeks and then asks questions that have to be answered with documents rather than emotion. People come to me saying "the bank has blocked everything without any explanation".

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Article5 October 2026IT, telecoms and digital

AI regulation: what to check inside your company

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

Companies adopt AI faster than they write it into their paperwork: the model is already taking decisions about customers while the contracts and policies say nothing about it. The regulation of artificial intelligence in Russia is assembled from several sources: the personal data law, the information law, sector-specific requirements of the Bank of Russia,…

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Article1 October 2026IT, telecoms and digital

From 1 October 2026: new rules for marketplaces and sellers

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

From 1 October 2026 the relationship between a marketplace and a seller is no longer governed by a single take-it-or-leave-it offer. The law now fixes notice periods, bans seller-funded discounts without consent, makes a pre-trial complaint mandatory and introduces fines for product listings without documents.

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Article30 September 2026IT, telecoms and digital

Myth of the month: from 1 October businesses must register a state e-mail

Vladimir Kovalev

All September entrepreneurs have been told that from 1 October they urgently need a state e-mail, or else fines and missed letters. I opened the text of Federal Law No. 271-FZ of 26 July 2026 and checked every claim of this myth against it. Below: where it came from, what the law actually contains and what is genuinely worth doing.

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Article28 September 2026Insolvency

Personal bankruptcy: who will not have their debts written off

Sergey Besedin, partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC, lawyer

Bankruptcy does not equal a write-off: the procedure ends, but the obligations remain if the court concludes that the debtor acted in bad faith. People arrive asking "how much does it cost to have my debts written off" and are surprised when the conversation starts somewhere else: whether they will be written off at all.

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Article25 September 2026International law and sanctions

How Usmanov and Fridman were removed from the EU sanctions list

Vladimir Kovalev

On 22 September 2026 the EU Council removed Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from its sanctions list and at the same time extended the regime for everyone else by 36 months. We look at which remedies led to this and which of them are available to other listed persons.

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Article21 September 2026Tax and audits

A demand from the tax office: what to do in the first ten days

Vladimir Kovalev

A demand from the tax office almost never arrives on its own: it is the first step in a procedure, and the way you answer it decides how that procedure ends. The most common mistake on receiving a demand is to treat it as a misunderstanding that will sort itself out.

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Article14 September 2026Insolvency

Director's subsidiary liability: when company debts become personal

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

A director does not always answer for the company's debts — but the presumptions in the statute are arranged so that it is the director who has to prove he acted properly. Executives come to me regularly having learned about a claim for subsidiary liability years after they left the company.

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Expert comment27 September 2024Corporate law

Court disputes between marketplaces and sellers

Kristina Tsypkalo, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The number of sellers on Russia's largest marketplaces may reach 700,000 by the end of 2024 — and with it the number of court disputes: since 2021 almost 4,300 claims have been filed against Ozon and Wildberries. An analysis of three typical conflicts: penalties and withheld payments, trade mark disputes and blocked listings, and lost or damaged goods.

Original source: ComNews.ru ↗

Expert comment4 September 2024Insolvency

Federal Tax Service files for insolvency of an Apsheronsk mineral water producer

Kristina Tsypkalo, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The Arbitrazh Court of Krasnodar Territory opened supervision proceedings against Alfa-Apsheronsk LLC, which owes more than RUB 3.9 million in taxes and contributions. The advocate links the situation to a sharp fall in revenue — from RUB 130 million in 2022 to RUB 24.9 million in 2023.

Original source: Kommersant ↗

Expert comment30 August 2024IT, telecoms and digital

Internet providers set about fixing YouTube: is that a breach?

Sergey Besedin, partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC, lawyer

Around ten telecom operators have deployed their own solutions to restore access to YouTube. Roskomnadzor has issued no official clarification — in the expert's view, no breach is formally apparent.

Original source: BFM.RU ↗

Expert comment29 August 2024Employment law

How parents can take the first day of the school year off

Olga Lapina, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

1 September falls on a Sunday and school assemblies are moving to the Monday, leaving parents to arrange a day off. The options: unpaid leave (a right of the employee, not an obligation of the employer), the privileged categories under art. 128 of the Labour Code, and the limits on splitting paid leave under art. 125.

Original source: Argumenty i Fakty ↗

Expert comment28 August 2024Family and inheritance

A citizenship stamp in a child's birth certificate

Olga Lapina, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

Since 1 March 2024 children under 14 need a document confirming Russian citizenship in order to travel abroad. Which documents qualify, which countries accept a birth certificate, and how to obtain the endorsement through the Ministry of Internal Affairs, mos.ru or an MFC.

Original source: RBC ↗

Expert comment27 August 2024Reputation and criminal

Insults online: how to defend your good name and hold the offender to account

Kristina Tsypkalo, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

Insult is defined in art. 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offences, but the law gives no clear test of what is “decent” in form — the judge decides, if necessary with expert evidence. How to secure the evidence before a notary (from RUB 2,000–3,000 per page) and whether litigation is worth starting.

Original source: Gazeta.Ru ↗

Expert comment15 August 2024Real estate and land

Subsidised 2% mortgages in the new regions

Olga Lapina, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The state programme has been extended to the resale market in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics and the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Regions. The full terms: a 2% rate, a term of up to 30 years, a maximum of RUB 6 million, a deposit from 10%, in force until 30 April 2025.

Original source: Rossiyskaya Gazeta ↗

Expert comment15 August 2024Corporate law

Why the Ebidoebi chain re-registered from Saransk to Moscow

Kristina Tsypkalo, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The holding company of the sushi delivery chain has changed its registration — its former address once sat inside a special economic zone with tax reliefs. The advocate suggests the change of registered address is a strategic step ahead of litigation.

Original source: RB.RU ↗

Expert comment31 July 2024Finance and banking

Banks will refund money sent to fraudsters: how and when

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

Banks must screen transfers and suspend suspicious operations; where money is sent to an account on the Central Bank's blacklist without notifying the customer, the bank must refund the whole amount — within 30 days for domestic transfers and 60 days for international ones. An analysis of the two-day cooling-off period.

Original source: RBC Pro ↗

Expert comment26 July 2024IT, telecoms and digital

Legalising industrial mining: what the miners' register will change

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

While mining remains in the shadows, it is difficult to supervise market participants or to go to court to protect infringed rights. Professional miners will be entered in a special register, and limits on energy consumption will be set for individuals.

Original source: RB.RU ↗

Expert comment25 July 2024Real estate and land

Moscow authorities demand demolition of part of the Lanit building

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

The city is asking the court to declare more than 1,300 sq m in a historic building at 5 Dobroslobodskaya Street an unauthorised structure, with a penalty of RUB 10,000 a day. The expert lists the hallmarks of an unauthorised structure and explains the city's systematic drive against them over the past three years.

Original source: RB.RU ↗

Expert comment25 July 2024Insolvency

Insolvency without the stress: dealing with the insolvency practitioner

Kristina Tsypkalo, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

Since late 2023 there has been an exception: where personal insolvency is initiated by the debtor, it can proceed without a practitioner. In every other case the practitioner's involvement is compulsory — the nuances of communication are examined separately for debtors and for creditors.

Original source: RBC Pro ↗

Expert comment25 July 2024Finance and banking

What to do if fraudsters have taken out a loan in your name

Dmitry Malyutov, advocate, chairman of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

A step-by-step guide: report to the police, send a formal demand to the bank or microfinance lender, request certified copies of the loan documents in duplicate, and go to court if refused. Plus prevention: never leave your passport as security and never share SMS codes.

Original source: Gazeta.Ru ↗

Expert comment18 July 2024Finance and banking

T-Bank to compensate a micro-enterprise RUB 1.7 million for a frozen account

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

The courts awarded White Box LLC damages caused by the unlawful freezing of its account under the pretext of anti-money-laundering rules. The expert notes that the bank did not rely on the indicators set out in Central Bank Regulation No. 375-P and did not notify the competent authorities.

Original source: RB.RU ↗

Expert comment18 July 2024Corporate law

The importer pays millions: what an adjustment of customs value means

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

Customs recalculates the value declared by the importer, and duties are then charged on the new figure. In one example, Holding Finance Broker faced three adjustments on the same goods; such a decision can be reversed only in court.

Original source: RBC Pro ↗

Expert comment18 July 2024Reputation and criminal

The consequences of defamation online

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

Defamation — the dissemination of knowingly false information — is a criminal offence under art. 128.1 of the Criminal Code. How it differs from insult, which is an administrative offence under art. 5.61 of the Code of Administrative Offences.

Original source: Gazeta.Ru ↗

Expert comment15 July 2024IT, telecoms and digital

How communications for fraud networks operate in Russia

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

In the Vologda Region the police shut down an underground telephone exchange; a sales agent of an operator had registered hundreds of SIM cards to non-existent passports. Article 13.29 of the Code of Administrative Offences has been in force since 1 March 2023, with fines from RUB 30,000 to RUB 2 million.

Original source: Izvestia ↗

Expert comment15 July 2024Family and inheritance

Family law: five myths about divorce and their unpleasant consequences

Kristina Tsypkalo, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

A divorce can go ahead even if the other spouse objects; after a divorce a former spouse may still claim maintenance. An analysis of the registry office and court routes, the exceptions, reconciliation periods and the rules on dividing jointly acquired property.

Original source: Sekret Firmy ↗

Expert comment15 July 2024Finance and banking

M.video turns to the police and the Investigative Committee over “consumer extremism”

Dmitry Malyutov, advocate, chairman of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The retailer is asking for criminal cases against customers, experts and the heads of expert organisations. The expert classifies the deliberate disabling of equipment in order to claim compensation as fraud under art. 159 of the Criminal Code, with the seller as the injured party.

Original source: Vedomosti ↗

Expert comment15 July 2024Family and inheritance

Children born before 1995 and proof of paternity by DNA

Olga Lapina, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The Constitutional Court has accepted for consideration a complaint about art. 48 of the RSFSR Code on Marriage and the Family, which allows paternity to be denied even where biological testing is positive — the decisive criterion remains involvement in raising the child.

Original source: Vedomosti ↗

Expert comment15 July 2024Employment law

A Russian siesta: will the working day be cut short in the heat?

Olga Lapina, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The State Duma has proposed letting employees leave early on hot days. The change would affect pay: a shift pattern or hourly pay for time actually worked may follow.

Original source: Izvestia ↗

Expert comment15 July 2024Family and inheritance

Better to check: which debts pass with an inheritance

Olga Lapina, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

Heirs pay the deceased's debts up to the value of the property received — including utility and loan debts. Debts connected with the person of the deceased, compensation for harm to life and health, and unpaid fines do not pass.

Source: 5-tv.ru

Expert comment15 July 2024Finance and banking

A former Russian Apple reseller wins RUB 1.6 billion from its insurer

Dmitry Malyutov, advocate, chairman of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The Arbitrazh Court of Moscow held the May 2022 fire at Atlant-Park to be an insured event and awarded RUB 1.6 billion against Energogarant in favour of three claimants. The expert notes that it is hard to comment before the reasoned judgment, which can be appealed within a month.

Source: Vedomosti

Expert comment15 July 2024IT, telecoms and digital

Exposing “grey miners”: are mining farms lawful?

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

Setting up mining farms in Russia is not unlawful, but nor can such operations be regarded as fully legalised — cryptocurrency systems are often used to move money in the shadow economy. Most often miners are caught stealing electricity.

Original source: Izvestia ↗

Expert comment15 July 2024Finance and banking

Ways to lift a travel ban

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

A tax debt of RUB 30,000 is enough to trigger a travel ban and the attachment of assets. Four routes: pay the debt, have the enforcement document set aside, agree a deferral or instalments with the tax authority, or reach agreement with the bailiffs (a postponement lasts only 10 days).

Source: Gazeta.Ru

Expert comment18 June 2024Real estate and land

Port Victoria seeks to recover a stretch of shoreline in Novorossiysk

Kristina Tsypkalo, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

A dispute with Rosimushchestvo over title to a strip of Black Sea shoreline (Volochaevsky beach). After the Prosecutor General's Office joined the case, breaches in the disposal of the plot came to light and the structure was held to be unauthorised — depriving the company of the good-faith purchaser's immunity.

Source: Kommersant

Expert comment18 June 2024IT, telecoms and digital

Companies to get open government data for training AI

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

The Ministry of Economic Development has drafted rules for publishing government data online. There is demand from business, but the shortage of regulation often leads to refusals of access, which may give rise to conflicts and litigation.

Source: Vedomosti

Expert comment18 June 2024Reputation and criminal

The unified military registration database in 2024

Yury Koval, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The law on electronic call-up notices and the unified military registration database was signed in 2023; in April 2024 the government approved the rules for maintaining the register. Its launch was scheduled for 1 November 2024.

Original source: Lenta.ru ↗

Expert comment18 June 2024Insolvency

Getting free of debt: the alternatives to insolvency

Dmitry Malyutov, advocate, chairman of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

Insolvency is one of the most popular ways of resolving financial disputes, but it has statutory limits. The alternatives: debt consolidation, negotiations with creditors and debt management plans.

Original source: Rossiyskaya Gazeta ↗

Expert comment18 June 2024Corporate law

Which Western companies have decided to return to Russia

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

According to the Financial Times, 2,173 foreign corporations have not left Russia, 1,223 have reduced their presence and only 387 have exited. The expert points out that Russian companies have changed jurisdiction too, and that preparing and executing the paperwork can take up to a year.

Original source: RIA Novosti ↗

Expert comment24 May 2024Corporate law

How changing a company's name affects the business

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

The LetoLeto complex changed the name of its legal entity from Aquapark to Thermal Resort. There is no limit on how often a name may be changed, but where a trade mark is registered, an application to change the proprietor's details must be filed with Rospatent.

Original source: RBC Tyumen ↗

Expert comment22 May 2024Corporate law

Home as a business address: can a company be registered at a residential address?

Sergey Besedin, partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC, lawyer

The law does not require a company to be registered at commercial premises — a flat where the director or shareholder is registered will do (art. 54(2) of the Civil Code). But if the shareholder does not collect correspondence, an entry on the unreliability of the address may be made in the Unified State Register of Legal Entities — a ground for striking the company off.

Original source: RIA Nedvizhimost ↗

Expert comment22 May 2024Employment law

Guarantees for temporary workers in the Labour Code

Kristina Tsypkalo, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

A bill has been introduced in the State Duma setting out guarantees for temporary workers and a right to suspend the employment contract at the main place of work. In the advocate's view, for companies facing short-term difficulties this is a good way of avoiding large-scale redundancies and keeping staff.

Original source: Izvestia ↗

Expert comment22 May 2024IT, telecoms and digital

Which apps cyber-thieves try hardest to break

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

The police have detained two residents of the Saratov Region suspected of stealing more than RUB 4.6 million through a vulnerability in a taxi app. The advocate explains the classification: where the loss exceeds a million roubles, art. 159(4) of the Criminal Code applies — fraud on a particularly large scale.

Original source: Izvestia ↗

Expert comment22 May 2024Corporate law

Sanctions may cut Russian developers off from open-source libraries

Vladimir Kovalev, lawyer, founder and managing partner of Kovalev & Partners LLC

On 1 May the US Treasury's SDN list came to include the Astra group, Lanit, part of the IBS group and others. The expert points to difficulties in hiring staff and opening offices abroad: foreign employees are unlikely to agree to be paid into accounts at Russian banks.

Original source: Vedomosti ↗

Expert comment22 May 2024Reputation and criminal

Refusals in a defamation claim set aside

Dmitry Malyutov, advocate, chairman of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

The cassation court set aside the first-instance and appellate rulings in a claim for the protection of honour, dignity and business reputation. The expert notes that the lower courts declined to examine in detail the text of the disputed letter sent to the claimant's employer.

Original source: Advokatskaya Gazeta ↗

Expert comment22 May 2024Employment law

If you are made to work on public holidays, you can go to court

Olga Lapina, advocate of the Kovalev, Malyutov, Tsypkalo & Partners Moscow Bar Association

Where the employment contract or the collective agreement says nothing about working on public holidays, the employer is in breach of employment law. The recommendation is to talk to the employer first and, failing that — and where absence has been recorded — to challenge it in court; the structure of the claim is set out.

Original source: Gazeta.Ru ↗

News14 November 2024Firm news

Letter of appreciation from the Popular Front of the Donetsk People's Republic

Artem Yurchenko, a member of the regional executive committee of the Popular Front of the Donetsk People's Republic, visited the offices of Kovalev & Partners and formally presented the firm with a letter of appreciation for its productive work and high professional standards, sent by Sergey Samokhin, head of the regional executive committee of the Popular Front of the Donetsk People's Republic.

Source: kovalev.moscow

News24 May 2024Firm news

Otkrytye Tekhnologii claims against Sibantracit companies covered by Forbes, Kommersant and RBC

Otkrytye Tekhnologii (Tapp Group) has filed claims in the Arbitrazh Court of the Republic of Mari El against subsidiaries of the Sibantracit coal group. The claimant is represented by the law firm Kovalev & Partners. The claim against the Kiyzassky opencast mine is RUB 3.06 billion and the claim against the Vostochny mine more than RUB 1.29 billion.

Source: Forbes

News16 February 2024Firm news

Charitable campaign for Volodarsk School No. 1 named after A. D. Yakimenko

On 9 February 2024 Kovalev & Partners ran a charitable campaign for Volodarsk School No. 1 named after A. D. Yakimenko, which took in more than 900 displaced people after the destruction of Mariupol. Vladimir Kovalev, the firm's founder and managing partner, donated computers and office equipment for study and creative work. The campaign had a sequel: in December 2025 Vladimir Kovalev founded the Wings of a Dream charitable foundation and became its chairman.

Source: kovalev.moscow