The Cabinet discussed at its Wednesday meeting draft laws regulating foreign investment in enterprises of strategic importance to Russia. The government extended the term for finalizing the bills from two weeks to one month.
The Russian government proposes establishing common criteria for enterprises to be classed as strategic and setting a term for decisions to be made on selling their stock to foreigners, Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said.
According to Khristenko, the measures aim to make the mechanisms of state control over deals with the shares of such enterprises transparent and understandable to foreign investors.
"The same clarity is needed for the Russian owners of enterprises, if they have strategic production facilities or technologies, or if they roll out strategic products," Khristenko said.
According to Khristenko, a term for making decisions on selling stakes in the charter capital of strategic enterprises must also be set.
"A decision must be made within a term of not more than three months. In exceptional cases, the term of decision-making can be extended for another three months by a government decision," Khristenko said.
The minister said foreign investors will be able to buy controlling stakes in strategic enterprises only with the permission of a special government commission and given approval from the Federal Security Service.
A deal signed without permission from a government commission may be appealed against in a court of law and deemed void, Khristenko said.
He added that an investor will receive permission for the deal to purchase a controlling stake only upon assuming obligations to keep state secrets, the minister said.
Khristenko also proposed that the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service should be authorized to make decisions on selling shares in strategic enterprises to foreign investors.
"This means the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service will sign with the investor agreements that have been defined by the commission," Khristenko said.
At the same time, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said the acquisition of even non-controlling stakes by foreign investors in strategic enterprises presents a risk for Russia.
Fradkov said that foreign managers are frequently invited to work at strategic companies, including as members of the board of directors of such companies.
These managers may frequently "operate on behalf of Russia," Fradkov said.
The prime minister said Russian managers should be involved instead of transferring assets to foreigners.
Russian Natural Resources Minister Yuri Trutnev said the share of foreign companies' participation in strategic deposits currently under development will not be reviewed.
He said the share of foreign companies' participation in strategic deposits is considerable today.
"These are substantial deposits. For example, this refers to the Sakhalin projects [in Russia's Far East] that are controlled by non-residents," Trutnev said.
