First Time In Russia: Laws, Work Hours, Business, Authorities

Laws

It has not been that long since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The current Russian legislation is very young and is still under continuous development. There are loads of documents clarifying and amending the effective laws. It is not easy to grasp all these nuances. This is why we recommend, when sorting out any issues concerning law (customs, drafting contracts, buying assets), to resort to the services of specialized Russian companies. There is a large number of legal, consulting, and brokerage companies working in large Russian cities. By European standards their prices are not that high as a rule. All you need to do is choose carefully.

Opening/work hours

In companies not involved in production the working day starts at about 9 to 10 AM. In production plants the day starts about an hour earlier. The majority of Russian managers are fairly easy regarding the upper limit of the working hours: if necessary they can stay at work longer, many are prepared to work on weekends. In Russia a business dinner is far wider spread an occurrence than a business lunch.

There is a wide spread opinion that Russians would rather work long hours very hard for a few days than work monotonously every day for the whole year. It is hard to say whether this can be said only about Russians. Although the colossal amounts of work they can turn out "at the last moment" can be really astounding for a newly arrived foreigner...

Holdings

Foreigners find the Russian holding companies most puzzling. There are vast numbers of them in Russia. Some of them combine companies of similar profile thus forming highly efficient integrated structures. Others may include companies of the most peculiar combination of various industries. Each company seems to have an independent management and the fact that the company belongs to a holding altogether is known to very few people. This may result in rather difficult situations. For example you negotiate, at the production site, the conditions for supplying your product, and at the very last moment it turns out that all the efforts were in vain. The decision regarding the selection of the supplier must be approved by the management of the holding and your yesterday's counteragents do not have the authority even to prepare the draft offer. And - the holding management may be in a city thousands of kilometres away from the production facility itself. This is why prior to negotiations or in the very beginning it would be useful to understand clearly the decision making structure and who are the people you have to negotiate with.

Business and Authorities

Authorities have always had a great influence over business in Russia. Managers of the majority of Russian companies pay attention, to a greater or lesser extent, to the opinion of authorities whose influence on some companies is practically without limits. Do not try to cut down on the time you spend establishing contacts with the representatives of regional authorities and presenting your projects. You can believe that they would gladly hear you out. It is much easier to talk to business people when you have the support of authorities. However, the influence of authorities must not be overestimated either. This applies especially to small townships where leaders of large companies which provide most of the employment locally, hold in their hands almost absolute control of most things.