Monitoring of the Federal Legislation dated 4.08.2004

Federal Law No. 98-FZ of July 29, 2004 on the Commercial Secret

The Federal Law regulates relations pertaining to information qualified as commercial secret, transfer of such information, protection of its confidentiality and prevention of unfair competition. The Law applies to information comprising the commercial secret regardless of the type of the medium where it is recorded.

Commercial secret is implied to be the confidentiality of information permitting its holder under existing or possible conditions to increase incomes, avoid unreasonable expenses, preserve the standing at the market of commodities, works, services or obtain another commercial vantage.

The Law specifies legislative restrictions on the information qualified as commercial secret for the interests of society, state and citizens. Thus, the commercial secrete regime may not be instituted by the persons engaged in entrepreneurial activities for information on the number and composition of employees, system of labour remuneration, working conditions, industrial injury rates and occupational diseases, available jobs, as well as employer debts in the payment of earnings and in other social payments.

The Law also specifies the duty to grant on the free basis to the bodies of state power and local government to their motivated demand information comprising the commercial secret.

The Law defines the rights of the holder of the commercial secret, regulates relations pertaining to the commercial secret obtained while executing a state contract for state needs. Also specifies the requirements to the protection of the confidentiality of information comprising the commercial secret including the labour relations and the legal civil relations.

The Law envisages responsibility for the violation of the legislation of the Russian Federation on the commercial secret.

Security classification imposed before the entry into force of the Law on material media and indicating the presence of information containing commercial secret in them preserve their force under the condition that the measures of protection of the confidentiality of the mentioned information may be brought in compliance with the requirements of the Law.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 400 of July 30, 2004 on the Endorsement of the Regulation on the Federal Service of Enforcement in the Sphere of Use of Natural Resources and on the Amendments to the Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 370 of July 22, 2004

The Federal Service of Enforcement in the Sphere of Use of Natural Resources is a federal body of executive power in charge of control and enforcement in the sphere of use of natural resources. The Federal Service is an authorised state body in the sphere of ecological expert evaluation and control.

The Federal Service is supervised by the Ministry of Natural Resources.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 399 of July 30, 2004 on the Endorsement of the Regulation on the Federal Service of State Statistics

The Federal Service of State Statistics is an authorised federal body of executive power in charge of the adoption of the normative legal acts in the sphere of state statistics, building of official statistical information on the social, economic, demographic and ecological situation in the country, as well as control in the sphere of state statistical activities.

The Federal Service shall provide temporarily on the free basis legal entities, their branches and representations, as well as independent entrepreneurs with the blank forms of state statistical reports and appropriate filling and submission documents within the limits of resources allocated for these purposes from the federal budget.

The activities of the Federal Service are supervised by the Government of the Russian Federation.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 398 of July 30, 2004 on the Endorsement of the Regulation on the Federal Service of Enforcement in the Sphere of Transport

The Federal Service of Enforcement in the Sphere of Transport is a federal body of executive power in charge of control and enforcement in the sphere of the civil aviation, marine (including the merchant marine, specialised, fishing ports, except for the fishing farms), internal water, railway, highway (except for the traffic safety issues), industrial transport and highway maintenance. The Federal Service shall implement, where it pertains to control and enforcement, the authority of the bodies acting in international treaties of the Russian Federation as the bodies in charge of the necessary measures aimed at execution of the obligations of the Russian Federation under these treaties in the mentioned sphere.

The Federal Service of Enforcement in the Sphere of Transport is supervised by the Ministry of Transport.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 397 of July 30, 2004 on the Endorsement of the Regulation on the Federal Agency of the Railway Transport

The Federal Agency of the Railway Transport is a federal body of executive power in charge of the implementation of the state policy, rendering of state services and state property management in the sphere of the railway transport. The Federal Agency shall also implement the authority of the railway administration of the Russian Federation in charge of the obligations under international treaties of the Russian Federation where it pertains to the implementation of the state policy, rendering of state services and state property management. The Federal Agency is supervised by the Ministry of Transport.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 396 of July 30, 2004 on the Endorsement of the Regulation on the Federal Agency of the Air Transport

The Federal Agency of the Air Transport is a federal body of executive power in charge of the rendering of state services, state property management in the sphere of the air transport (civil aviation) and the civil part of the Joint System of the Air Traffic of the Russian Federation, including its functioning, development and modernisation.

The Federal Agency shall implement the powers of the aviation authority in the sphere of civil aviation where it pertains to the rendering of state services and state property management while executing obligations under international treaties of the Russian Federation. The Federal Agency shall license on the temporary basis the activities in passenger and cargo transportation by the air transport.

The Federal Agency is supervised by the Ministry of Transport.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 395 of July 30, 2004 on the Endorsement of the Regulation on the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation

The Ministry of Transport is a federal body of executive power in the sphere of transport in charge of the working out of the state policy and normative-and-legal regulation in the sphere of civil aviation, marine (including the merchant marine, specialised and fishing ports, except for the fishing farms), internal water, railway, highway, city electric (including the underground) and industrial transport, highway maintenance, geodesy and cartography.

The Ministry of Transport shall coordinate and control the activities of supervised by it Federal Service of Enforcement in the Sphere of Transport, Federal Agency of the Air Transport, Federal Highway Agency, Federal Agency of the Railway Transport, Federal Agency of the Sea and River Transport and the Federal Agency of Geodesy and Cartography.

Order of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1024-r of July 30, 2004

Defines the procedure of subordination of the territorial bodies of abandoned, reorganised and other federal bodies of executive power to the federal bodies of executive power reorganised and formed in compliance with the Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation No. 314 of March 9, 2004 and No. 649 of May 20, 2004.

Order of the Ministry of the Industry and Power Supplies of the Russian Federation No. 41 of July 13, 2004 on the Endorsement of the Procedure of Publication and Entry into Force of the Acts of the Ministry of the Industry and Power Supplies of the Russian Federation Recognised by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation As Not Needing State Registration

The mentioned acts must be published in the Industrial Weekly newspaper, which is an official publication for such acts. The given acts shall enter into force from the day their signing if otherwise is not specified in them.

Registered in the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on July 30, 2004. Reg. No. 5953.

Information Letter of the Higher Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, Central Bank of Russia No. S1-7/MO-627, 06/899-YuCh, 01-31/2020 of January 28, June 1, 4, 2004 on the Issues of Application of the Agreement between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus on the Procedure of Mutual Execution of the Judicial Acts of the Courts of Arbitration of the Russian Federation and the Economic Courts of the Republic of Belarus

According to the Agreement, decisions of the courts of both states do need a special procedure of recognition and shall be executed according to the same procedure as the decisions of the courts of the own state on the basis of the writs of execution of the courts having adopted the decisions.

The Letter provides a sample payment order presented on the territory of the Republic of Belarus by the collecting organisation together with the writ of execution to the local bank to write off money from the debtor bank account.

A copy of the payment order is handed out to the collecting party simultaneously with the writ of execution received in the appropriate court of arbitration due for execution on the territory of the Republic of Belarus.