Russia's parliament will consider draft law limiting foreign property immunity

MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. Russia’s State Duma will hold the first reading of the draft law making possible to limit immunity of a foreign state in Russia’s territory and immunity of foreign state’s property in the territory of Russia by decisions of Russian courts, speaker of the lower house of the Russian parliament Sergey Naryshkin said on Monday.

"The draft law on the jurisdictional immunity of a foreign state and foreign state property in Russia will be reviewed. The first reading will take place this week," Naryshkin said. The initiative will be discussed on September 25, the press service of the State Duma said.

The initiative provides for the principle of reciprocity, "stipulating that immunity of a foreign state in Russia’s territory and immunity of foreign state’s property in Russia’s territory accordingly may be limited by court decision in the same scope, in which foreign states will limit immunity of Russia or its property in the territory of the said foreign state," Naryshkin said.

Russian government submitted to the State Duma a bill enabling the authorities to take restrictive measures against foreign property in Russia in response to unlawful arrests of Russian property abroad in August. "The number of lawsuits issued against Russia or its state agencies keeps growing all the time and most typically no one asks Moscow’s consent to involvement in such cases. This situation stems from a concept of limited immunity of the state widely spread in legislation of foreign states, in line with which a foreign state, its agencies or organizations and their property do not enjoy immunity against claims arising from commercial activities of these subjects," an explanatory note to the draft document said.