When Compendium II was published about a year ago, we remarked that Russia had gone through legislative and political changes in 2012/2013 that - from a lawyer's perspective - could be described as dramatic. We would have been more cautious about using the word "dramatic" had we known then what developments were to come in the year that followed. The impact of the Ukraine crisis on the Russian business environment, including business law, has been profound. Planned areas of development (such as reforming the civil law regime and introducing WTO rules following Russia's accession in 2012) have been outside the spotlight, while the political disputes between Russia and many Western countries relating to the events in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, followed by the imposition of U.S. and EU sanctions, seemed capable of threatening the foundations of Russian business. The Ukraine crisis is not yet over, and the threat of more severe sanctions still hangs over business relations between Russia...
