Russia has introduced a number of amendments to anti-corruption legislation

In particular, the following were adopted:

Federal Law No. 307-FZ dated August 3, 2018 "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation to Improve Control over Compliance with the Russian Federation Anti-Corruption Legislation";
Federal Law No. 304-FZ of August 3, 2018 "On Amending Article 193 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation";
Federal Law No. 298-FZ of August 3, 2018 "On Amending the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation".

The amendments and additions introduced by the laws affect 5 key areas:

1) Implementation of verification of completeness and reliability of information on income, expenses, property and property obligations.

Heads of state corporations, public-law companies are granted the right to receive certificates of credit organizations on operations, accounts and deposits of individuals, and heads of federal state bodies, the Bank of Russia, constituent entities of the Russian Federation, federal extra-budgetary funds - also of legal entities when verifying the accuracy of information provided on income, expenses, property and property obligations.

2) Exercising control over the expenses of officials.

It is established that it is necessary to exercise control over the expenditures of not only current officials, the list of which is defined by Federal Law No. 230-FZ of December 3, 2012 "On control over the compliance of expenditures of persons holding public office and other persons with their income", but also persons who previously held the respective positions. Such control is carried out by the prosecutor's office bodies by decision of the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of the Russian Federation, as well as the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation or authorized persons.

Control over the expenditures of former officials may be exercised within 6 months after their dismissal, and only those transactions on the acquisition of property that were made by the official during the period of his or her office are considered. The possibility of using such a mechanism in the Russian Federation and related procedural problems have already been considered earlier.

At the same time, there is an alternative to transferring property acquired with unconfirmed income to the state in the form of foreclosure of a monetary amount equivalent to the value of such property, if it is impossible to transfer the property to the state. These provisions are introduced in order to prevent the sale or deterioration of seized property. In addition, the possibility of seizing a part of the property (or its monetary equivalent) is established, if the origin of only a small part of the funds is not explained.

3) Other anti-corruption prohibitions and restrictions for officials.

The restriction on participation in the management of commercial and non-commercial organizations on behalf of or in the interests of the Russian Federation, constituent entities of the Russian Federation or municipalities is clarified for state and municipal officials: such participation is now possible only on a gratuitous basis (in order to avoid a conflict of interest).

4) Application of disciplinary penalties for corruption offenses.

Norms are introduced according to which a penalty for a corruption offense (except for dismissal due to loss of confidence) may, with the employee's consent, be imposed only on the basis of a report of the human resources department. This approach simplifies the procedure for imposing disciplinary penalties for minor corruption offenses, which previously required a meeting of the Commission on Compliance with Requirements to Official Conduct and Settlement of Conflict of Interest (hereinafter - the Commission).

Uniform terms of application of penalties for state and municipal employees are established - not later than 6 months from the date of receipt of information about the violation and not later than 3 years from the date of its commission. Previously in force norms - not later than 1 month from the date of receipt of information about the violation, excluding the period of temporary incapacity for work, vacation and other cases of absence of the employee, as well as the time of inspection, but not later than 6 months from the date of receipt of information about the violation - allowed the offender to avoid the application of the penalty

At the same time, the previously effective norms of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the LC RF) on imposing a penalty not later than 1 month from the date of receipt of information about the violation remain in force. At the same time, the established period of time does not include the period of the inspection and the subsequent meeting of the commission, but in practice the timing of these events often exceeds the one-month period. In this regard, for organizations whose employees' activities are regulated by the norms of the LC RF (e.g., state corporations), it becomes extremely difficult to attract a violation of the LC RF Labor Code.

5) Liability of legal entities for giving, promising or offering illegal remuneration on their behalf or in their interests.

It is established the possibility of exemption of a legal entity from administrative liability under Article 19.28 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses, if the legal entity contributed to the detection of the offense and further investigation, as well as if extortion took place in relation to it.

These norms are introduced by analogy with the provisions of criminal law, which provide for the possibility of exemption from liability for individuals. It is assumed that the possibility of exemption from liability will contribute to increasing the attention of legal entities to the detection of corruption offenses and voluntary disclosure of information on corruption offenses committed by individuals - their employees or other persons - to the relevant authorities.

At the same time, taking into account the position of international organizations in the context of the implementation of anti-corruption conventions ratified by the Russian Federation, these provisions do not apply in the case of bribery of a foreign official or an official of an international organization.

At the same time, as one of the measures to ensure proceedings on cases of illegal remuneration on behalf of a legal entity, arrest of its property (or accounts, if there is no property) for an amount not exceeding the maximum amount of the fine for the offense is introduced. The decision to use such a measure is taken by the court on the basis of a prosecutor's petition.

In addition, it is envisaged that the administrative fine established by Article 19.28 of the CAO must be paid not later than 7 days from the date of entry into force of the relevant court decision (currently, as law enforcement practice shows, the terms of payment of fines by legal entities are stretched for months and even years).