MOSCOW, August 1 (Itar-Tass) —— Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the federal bill On Amending Selected Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation the State Duma passed on July 10, 2012 and the Federation Council endorsed on July 18, 2012.

The bill amends the Code of Internal Water Transport of the Russian Federation, the federal bill The Regulations of Automobile Transport and Urban Ground Electric Drive Transport, as well as other federal bills.

The amendments envisage perfecting state management of internal water transport, as well as stricter supervisory measures to ensure safe operation of transport vehicles. The bill, specifically, regulates state port management and activity of the internal waterways authority, stipulates obligations of owner of a sunk vessel and of owner of other sunk property, specifies provisions for state supervision of automobile transport and urban ground electric drive transport.

The bill refines provisions of the Code of the Russian Federation on administrative offenses as regards responsibility for failing to observe requirements for safety of passenger, luggage and freight carriages by automobile transport and urban ground electric drive transport, responsibility for unlicensed entrepreneurial activity in transportation, and other provisions.

The bill signed amends the federal bill On Compulsory Civil Liability Insurance of Vehicle Owners to enable vehicle owners to conclude in some cases a compulsory insurance agreement for no longer than 20 days when lacking a license for a vehicle’s participation in road traffic. The requirement to produce in concluding the compulsory insurance agreement the technical inspection certificate or the certificate of a transport vehicle having passed state technical inspection, whose validity expires over six months earlier than the expiry of the proposed term of the compulsory insurance agreement being concluded, is found null and void.