Monitoring of the Federal Legislation dated 13.06.2006

Federal Law No. 83-FZ of June 9, 2006 on the Ratification of the Treaty between the Russian Federation and the Chinese People's Republic on the Transfer of Convicts

Ratifies the Treaty signed in Peking on December 2, 2002. The Treaty is prepared taking into account the contractual practice of the Russian Federation and international standards in the given sphere, including the UN model agreement on the transfer of foreign convicts (1985).

Federal Law No. 82-FZ of June 9, 2006 on the Ratification of the Convention between the Russian Federation and the French Republic on the Transfer of Persons Convicted for Imprisonment

Ratifies the Convention signed in Paris on February 11, 2003. The Convention is prepared taking into account the contractual practice of the Russian Federation and international standards in the given sphere, including the UN model agreement on the transfer of foreign convicts (1985).

Federal Law No. 81-FZ of June 9, 2006 on the Ratification of the Agreement on Cooperation of the Member-States of the Commonwealth of Independent States on the Return of the Underage to the Countries of Their Permanent Residence

Ratifies the Agreement signed in Kishinev on October 7, 2002. The Agreement contains provisions defining the legal and organisational mechanisms to find and return to the countries of permanent residence of the underage having found themselves without support, as well as specifying the list of transit institutions providing interstate transportation of the underage returned to the places of their permanent residence.

Federal Law No. 80-FZ of June 8, 2006 on the Amendment to Article 31 of the Law of the Russian Federation on the Militia

The subjects of the Russian Federation are empowered with the right to define the procedure of providing priority accommodations in institutions of general education and pre-school institutions and in summer rehabilitation camps regardless of the forms of ownership to children of militia personnel killed (deceased) because of execution of service duties or deceased within one year after dismissal from service because of the wounds (contusion), disease obtained during service, as well as to children of militia employees having obtained injuries because of execution of service duties that do not permit to continue the service.

Decision of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 356 of June 9, 2006 on the Procedure of Granting Subsidies in 2006 from the Federal Budget to the Budgets of the Subjects of the Russian Federation to Make Monetary Payments to the Medical Personnel of the Feldsher and Obstetrician Stations, Doctors, Feldshers and Medical Nurses of the Emergency Medical Aid

The subsidies are provided to the budgets of only those subjects of the Russian Federation that adopted laws or other normative legal acts defining expenditure obligations of the subjects in monetary payments to medical personnel of the feldsher and obstetrician stations (chiefs of feldsher and obstetrician stations, feldshers, obstetricians, medical nurses, including the visiting nurses) and the doctors, feldshers (obstetricians), medical nurses of the emergency medical aid.

The volume of provided subsidies is determined within the following limits: Rbl 5,000 a month for a doctor, Rbl 3,500 a month for a feldsher (obstetrician) and Rbl 2,500 a month for the medical nurse.

The subsidies are provided in the III quarter of 2006 in the amount of 50% of the envisaged volume of resources and in the IV quarter of 2006 by partial compensation of cash expenses of the budgets of the subjects of the Russian Federation for the mentioned payments.

Decision of the Higher Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation No. 3027/06 of May 5, 2006 on the Refusal to Satisfy the Application Requesting Invalidation of the Order of the State Customs Committee of the Russian Federation No. 607 of May 25, 2004 on the Endorsement of the List of Documents and the Form of the Application

The challenged Order defines the documents necessary to obtain the decision to return (offset) customs duties, taxes and return advance payments, as well as endorses the form of the appropriate application. According to the applicant, since Article 63 of the Customs Code defines the authority of the federal ministry in the fixing of the list of documents necessary for the customs registration, and Article 355 of the Customs Code does not contain the norm on similar authority to return excessively paid customs payments, therefore, the State Customs Committee of the Russian Federation did not have the authority to issue the challenged Order thus empowering it with the duty not envisaged in the mentioned Code.

The Higher Arbitration Court came to the conclusion that since calculation and collection of customs payments in the cases envisaged in the legislation are an obligatory condition of the customs registration and, therefore, are qualified as the customs operations category, the return of excessively paid amounts as an action directly associated with the customs registration should also be recognised as a customs operation subject, in pursuance of Article 58 of the Customs Code, to provisions of Item 2 of Article 63 of the Code. Thus, the State Customs Committee of the Russian Federation had the authority to specify the list of the documents necessary for decision taking on the return (offsetting) of the customs duties, taxes and return of advance payments, as well as endorse the form of the application for the return (offsetting) of the monetary resources. In this connection, the challenged Order is recognised as complying with Articles 63 and 355 of the Customs Code.