Direct Agreements in Projects With State Participation: Comparative Legal Analysis

Over the past years, the Russian Federation has taken a number of measures aimed at developing existing legislation in order to create attractive, stable and transparent conditions for private investment in projects with state participation, on the one hand, and to reduce the financial burden on the budget system, on the other. Currently, the tools to provide investors with special legal regimes for carrying out economic activities (such as special economic zones, territories of priority social and economic development, industrial technology parks, clusters and industrial parks, special tax regimes, territorial development zones etc.) are sufficiently implemented in the system of Russian legislation and economic practice. However, it should be recognized that there are significant gaps in the use of internationally recognized instruments to assist investors in the framework of contractual relations. In other words, today, regarding supporting the implementation of investment projects with state participation, only the necessary institutional, but not contractual environment has been formed, the latter being an indispensable requirement for attracting private (including foreign) investors. In this regard, the article considers one of the key elements of the international practice in supporting the implementation of investment projects with state participation — a direct agreement with senior creditors, and also contains a comparative legal analysis of such practice with the Russian system of legal regulation. The article concludes that it is necessary to expand the possibilities of using direct agreements in investment projects with state participation in Russia, and formulates proposals to bring their provisions in line with the best international standards.