Pravo.ru published an article in which Nikita Zharov, head of the Tax Compliance practice area, spoke about the obstacles preventing business owners from doing business in an ATS (special administrative region), a special economic district in Russia.

In 2018, Russia created two special administrative districts (SARs) on Russky Island in Primorsky Krai and Oktyabrsky Island in Kaliningrad Oblast. The ATS were formed to attract foreign businesses, including those with Russian "roots." At first, the ATS did not cause a wave of re-registrations of foreign companies under the control of Russian controlling persons. But because of the increased sanctions risks, difficulties in doing business and organizing holdings abroad, including in terms of obtaining banking services, we can see that interest from the business has grown strongly. And at the same time the number of applications for re-registration of foreign holdings in the ATS. Nikita Zharov, the head of the Tax Compliance practice area explains that many foreign companies with Russian participation encountered such problems:

• large providers have begun to refuse accounting, legal consulting services;
• difficulties arise in distributing dividends to "unfriendly" countries;
• foreign banks block accounts without explanation;
• freezing the company's assets.

The full text of the article can be found at the link.