VLADIMIR KUZNETSOV: ‘A NEW MOVEMENT OF ENTREPRENEURS IS NOT CREATED FOR A SHOW’

At the All-Russian Congress of the All-Russian Movement of Entrepreneurs, which took place in the Grebnevo estate in the Moscow region, the ‘Lawyers and Attorneys for Business’ thematic platform was created. Its main speaker was Vladimir Kuznetsov, the Vice President of the Association of Lawyers and Law Firms for Registration, Liquidation, Bankruptcy and Legal Representation.

What do you expect from the All-Russian movement of entrepreneurs? In your opinion, will it differ from the already existing associations?

V.A. Kuznetsov: I strongly believe that there will be a real association of entrepreneurs, which was created not for a show and not for holding conferences or congresses, but for agreeing on general and large-scale systemic changes in the business climate of the Russian Federation.

What do up-and-coming entrepreneurs need now?

V.A. Kuznetsov: They may lack legal literacy and experience. And it is very important that they do not take steps that may later become problems. For this, the All-Russian Movement of Entrepreneurs, where younger people will be able to communicate with more experienced ones, was created.

What are the problems that experienced businessmen have? What do they lack?

V.A. Kuznetsov: All experienced entrepreneurs probably have the same problems in the post-pandemic period. We need to continue to adapt the business to changing trends, to the involvement of online areas and work to change any new force majeure situations so that they have as little impact on the overall business outcome as possible.

What bill, in your opinion, should be passed first of all to help entrepreneurs?

V.A. Kuznetsov: It is very important that all decisions that are made should be harmonized with each other. We all saw how new restrictions were introduced in Moscow after the general weakening of restrictions at the federal level, and they were introduced not in relation to all spheres of activity, but only in relation to specific ones, which caused great indignation and imbalance in society.

I believe that all decisions must be thought out. If they are thought out, we can gradually build a comfortable environment for doing business.

The Doing Business rating, which is published officially, is too formalized. And we all know that there are a very large number of supervisory bodies in Russia. And, probably, one of the very first steps of the Russian movement of entrepreneurs will be to reduce the number of control and supervisory bodies. We will all work in this direction.

Nowadays such direction as mediation is gaining popularity - pre-trial settlement of disputes with the involvement of a third neutral party. What do you think about this?

V.A. Kuznetsov: Mediation can help solve almost any complex problem, one that is not described either in codes or in federal laws.

If mediation is applied correctly, we can achieve the best results. This is an opportunity to manually adjust any difficult situation without waiting several decades for the legislation to change.

Is it possible to bring the relationship between government and business to this level, so that the emerging contradictions could be resolved through mediation?

V.A. Kuznetsov: Legislative initiatives are currently moving in this direction. Already in the fall, the Ministry of Justice will submit a law to the Government, in which even state bodies will have the right to independently initiate mediation. But in order to break the line between corruption and mediation, clear regulations are needed - what can be regulated, what is necessary for this, and only then it will be a truly mass product.

Now, for example, mediation between the tax inspectorate and the taxpayer is practically impossible, because all the relationships are strictly regulated by the tax code.

In order to be able to change either the deadline for paying taxes or the amount, it is necessary to build a mechanism for this.

So we will work on it within the framework of the All-Russian Movement of Entrepreneurs.