CIS Legal Autumn Conference

About the event

SCHNEIDER GROUP presents in a concise and hands on way the most important legal updates in Russia as well as an overview of the economic situation, market entry opportunities as well as business and employee relocation options in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

A special focus on IT related business opportunities in Central Asia and South Caucasus.

9³⁰ - 10⁰⁰ Registration

10⁰⁰ - 10¹⁰ Opening Speech by Thomas Mundry (Partner, Head of Legal and Tax Department, Moscow)

Session 1: Russia

10¹⁰ - 10²⁵ Risks of local management in light of current reality and actions to minimize them

Impossibility to fulfill contractual obligations due to sanctions
Non-return of pre-payments and loans by foreign contractual partners
Restructuring of business
Contradiction between interests of the Russian companies and foreign sanctions

Speaker: Natalia Wilke: Partner, Legal, General Director, St. Petersburg

10²⁵ - 10⁴⁰ Requisitioning of property of legal entities in case of mobilization and martial law

Martial law - transport obligations of legal entities
Requisition of other property
Compensation of damages
Special case: leasing of vehicles

Speaker: Ekaterina Kalinina: Head of Commercial, Real Estate and Regulatory Law Practices, Moscow

10⁴⁰ - 10⁵⁵ Update on currency control limitations: what to consider in the new reality

Limitations in the field of cross border trade transactions
Limitations in the field of loan repayments, loan provision, dividends and profit distribution and liquidation payments
Consideration of possible solutions and practical aspects of implementation

Speaker: Ekaterina Lakatosh: Head of Tax Practice, Moscow

10⁵⁵ - 11¹⁰ Management buy-out (MBO) – the solution to all issues?

To which company types fits an MBO
Timeline for an MBO
Recent experiences with MBO

Speaker: Alexander Titov: Head of Corporate Law Practice, Moscow

Session 2: South Caucasus and Central Asia

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan:

Review of economical situation, opportunities for market entry, business and employee relocation.

A special focus on IT related business opportunities in Central Asia and South Caucasus.

11¹⁰ - 11³⁰ Armenia

Special topics:

IT opportunities in Armenia
Case study: Transfer and set up of an entire IT development team in Armenia from Russia

Speaker: Yeva Voskanyan, Head of Office, Head of Accounting, Yerevan

11³⁰ - 11⁵⁰ Uzbekistan

Special topic: Investment start up of an IT company

IT industry in Uzbekistan
Case study: Turnkey start up of IT company in Uzbekistan

Speaker: Nodir Ayupov, Partner, Head of Office, Tashkent

11⁵⁰ - 12²⁰ Kazakhstan

Special topics:

Labor and Migration aspects of relocation
Benefits provided by SEZ Park of Innovation Technologies, Astana Hub and Astana International Financial Center

Speakers: Maria Nazarova: Head of Tax, Almaty

Olga Nezgovorova: HR Director, Almaty

12²⁰ - 12³⁵ Kyrgyzstan

Speaker: Maria Nazarova: Head of Tax, Almaty

12³⁵ - 12⁵⁵ Azerbaijan

Speaker: Bayram Rahimov: Head of Office, Baku

12⁵⁵ - 13⁰⁰ Closing of the Conference

13⁰⁰ - 14⁰⁰ Lunch and Networking

Contact person for all event-related questions

Hans Kuepper: events@schneider-group.com, +7 495 956 55 57

About speakers

Yeva Voskanyan

Head of Yerevan Office

Yeva was appointed head of SCHNEIDER GROUP Yerevan office in November 2021. She is in charge of developing the services portfolio offered to local and international customers in Armenia: accounting outsourcing, financial, tax and legal consulting, interim management, personnel recruitment, and business setup.

Yeva graduated from the State University of Management (Moscow) with a degree in Organization and Tax Management. She speaks Armenian, Russian, and English.

AlexanderTitov

Head of Corporate Law Practice, Moscow

Alexander joined the company in 2021. He has more than 25 years of professional experience and specializes in advising international companies on joint ventures, restructuring, M&A, and executive dispute resolution.

Companies from a wide range of industries, such as machinery, engineering, automotive, pharma, chemicals, food, consumer goods, professional services, fashion and retail rely on Alexander’s expertise.

Alexander graduated from Moscow State Linguistic University with a degree in Translation; a degree in Law from Lomonosov Moscow State University; a master's degree in Law from the University of Konstanz (Germany).
He speaks Russian, German and English.

Ekaterina Kalinina

Head of Commercial, Real Estate and Regulatory Law Practices, Moscow

Ekaterina joined SCHNEIDER GROUP in 2020. She has over 17 years of experience in advising international and Russian companies on legal aspects of Russian market entry and investment projects, greenfield and brownfield manufacturing localisation projects, EPC-contracts, real estate, and construction.

Ekaterina specialises in quality claims, certification, preparation of permissive documents for import. Companies from machinery, automotive, FMCG, pharma, renewable energies, and retail industries rely on her professional expertise.

She graduated from Lomonosov Moscow State University with a degree in Law, and holds a Master of Law degree from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

Ekaterina Lakatosh

Head of Tax & Currency Control Practice

Ekaterina joined SCHNEIDER GROUP in 2017 as senior tax expert. She has in-depth knowledge in value-added tax, corporate taxation, foreign currency control, and international tax structuring, including double taxation treaties. She has over 20 years of experience.

Ekaterina specialises in supporting SCHNEIDER GROUP’s customers during tax audits, in tax dispute resolution, and in comprehensive tax due diligence. International and Russian companies from pharmaceutical, construction, consulting, insurance, retail, and IT industries rely on Ekaterina’s professional expertise.

She graduated with an honours degree in Law from the Academic Law University at the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), and completed an advanced course in Tax Consultancy at Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation in 2017.

Maria Nazarova

Head of Tax Almaty, Kazakhstan

Mariya joined SCHNEIDER GROUP in 2018. She advises the company's customers on local and international taxation, provides accounting and tax review services, assists SCHNEIDER GROUP’s clients during tax audits, supports them with filing appeals for tax refunds, reviews and drafts investment agreements.

Mariya has more than 15 years of professional experience, including working at PwC.

She earned her master's degree in Business Administration from KIMEP University.

Natalia Wilke

Partner, Legal, General Director, St. Petersburg, Russia

Natalia is SCHNEIDER GROUP Partner and General Director of the St. Petersburg office. She is a lawyer with more than 20 years of practical experience in legal consulting.

Natalia provides tailored-made, practically-oriented legal solutions in establishing and managing subsidiaries of international businesses in Russia, manufacturing localisation, compliance, acquisition of real estate, as well as corporate and labour law.

Natalia speaks Russian, German and English, and has a basic knowledge of French.

Nodir Ayupov

Partner, Uzbekistan

Nodir became Director of the Tashkent office in September 2018.
He is responsible for the development of services provided by the Tashkent office, including accounting outsourcing and automation, ERP implementation and integration, interim management, business setup and manufacturing localisation.

Prior to joining SCHNEIDER GROUP, Nodir worked for 18 years for Uzbekistan Airways in increasingly responsible positions, starting as Head of External Affairs and completing his job for the airline as Head of representative offices in Kazakhstan, Greece, and Spain. He has more than 20 years of professional experience in finance and international consulting.

Nodir earned a degree in Finance, Consulting, and Venture Management from Emory University (Atlanta, the USA) and a degree in International Business from the Tashkent State University of Economics, where he taught Management Accounting course after the graduation.
Nodir speaks 5 languages: Russian, English, Uzbek, Spanish and Greek.

About SCHNEIDER GROUP

SCHNEIDER GROUP has been helping businesses to expand to new geographical markets since 2003, offering a full range of business support services: from developing strategy for successful market-entry to helping arrange or optimize accounting, reporting and financial planning processes and establishing efficient IT infrastructures.

500 top experts in 11 countries take care of all resource-consuming non-core business tasks, so our customers can focus on achieving their business goals. We offer services in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Austria, Belarus, Georgia, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Russia and Uzbekistan, with minor regional variations. Get in touch via our contact form to request details of specific service packages available in your target country.

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