The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation considers the possibility of returning to the market of Government Short-Term Bonds. This was stated by Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko.

According to her words, the REPO (repurchase agreement) overnight instrument (issuing of available budget funds for one night) is creating. The attraction of additional liquidity mechanism is developing to reduce the risks of non fulfilment of current liabilities in 2015, which, obviously, will be difficult for the economy.

Government Short-Term Bonds were widely used in the market in 1990. They were one of key instruments of current government activity financing. In August 1998 the inability to meet obligations on Government Short-Term Bonds was the reason of Russian default. In 2005 it was decided to stop using Government Short-Term Bonds as such instrument was no longer necessary.

Time will show how reasonable is to come back to the market of short budget money in the conditions of macroeconomic uncertainty, strong volatility on currency market, the pressure of penalties and decreasing oil prices. However the government probably shows with this step that there might be problems with fulfilment of current liabilities next year.

Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) brought up the amendments to the Competition Law for discussion of the expert community. The cases specified in the article 14 of the current law are particularized in the proposed bill. It will help in future to shorten the time and to simplify the proof of antitrust infringement. Today the contradictions of the law interpretation lead to ambiguous judicial practice.

In fact, the article 14 of the current law was written over by the drafters. The following examples are given as a case of unethical competition: discredit of another economic entity, misinformation of consumers, inaccurate comparison, using of the results of intellectual property, using of business reputation of another entrepreneur and others. Herewith Yana Sklyarova, the head of department for protection against unfair competition, laid emphasis on the fact that the new version of the law would be maximally close to the corresponding statutory acts of the European countries.

Several articles of the new bill partly coincide with the advertising legislation and intellectual property legislation. This may lead to temptation on the part of the judicial authorities to apply softer article to the lawbreaker at considering cases. In order to avoid situations of this kind, the new bill expects the amending to Administrative Offences Code, which eliminates the responsibility of the infringers.

On the whole, the bill has generated the approval of the experts, except for the articles related to the using of the intellectual property. Thus, many manufacturers disagree with the introduction of “prior use” notion. In other words, it means that those who started producing the item earlier become the owners of the trademark. Ivan Bliznets, the chairman of Intellectual Property Committee of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, showed solidarity concerning this question. He explained that the Civil Code of the Russian Federation doesn’t contain such a notion and this legislative instrument is of the higher level.

Before coming into force, the bill will be marked up considering all the notes.