EDUARD BUDANTSEV: «We are the basis that forms the making of correct and objective»
One of the leading legal institutions in Moscow is the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’. The Association has broad experience in protecting the interests of large Russian and foreign organizations, providing legal support to municipalities and authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The members of the Bar association are highly qualified lawyers and attorneys with competence in various fields of law; many of the experts have working experience in law enforcement and supervisory authorities, as well as in various government agencies of the Russian Federation. In an exclusive interview with our magazine, the Chairman of the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’, international relations specialist Eduard Budantsev, talks about the activities of the Association, its priorities, merits and the wide range of services provided.
- Mr. Budantsev, last December the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ celebrated its 20th anniversary. What achievements can the Board and you as its chairman be proud of?
– The Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ was founded in 2003 by Anatoly Zlatoustovsky. The main goal of its creation is to provide highly qualified legal assistance both in Russia and abroad. At the same time, we try to respond in a flexible manner to new legal challenges in the constantly changing legal environment.
Over the past 20 years, the association has overcome a long way, full of various events. The Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ has acquired qualified personnel and earned high prestige among clients and fellow lawyers. We have formed a full fledged professional team of experienced specialists. A number of employees have been working for more than 10-15 years.
There are also employees whose almost entire working life from their student days is connected with the ‘Diktatura zakona’. We recruit young law students, help them to advance professionally and to obtain the status of a lawyer.
We follow the principle of mentoring young lawyers during the first three or four years of their career development.
The association’s priority is an individual approach to the client and a guarantee of full confidentiality. Throughout our legal assistance to clients, we always remember our main mission as lawyers – to protect the innocent, serve the public and ensure the rule of law in all its manifestations. The name of our Bar association is not just a claim or a successful logan.
This is the main goal for all our lawyers – to establish the dictatorship of the law. One of the significant events of last year was that our association moved into its own new functional building that was as convenient as possible for legal practice. Above all, we value our clients and their safety. As the result, many clients stay with us for many years.
– We know that the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ provides a wide range of legal services to both individuals and legal entities. Which areas of law are you the most confident?
– The team includes lawyers in almost all areas – civil, criminal, tax, family, international law. Among the association’s specialists there are employees who have scientific degrees and carry out teaching activities in the country’s leading law universities.
We cover practically the entire range of services. These are civil and arbitration cases, support of corporate procedures, bankruptcy cases, divorce proceedings, criminal cases, protection of clients’ interests in relations with law enforcement and other government agencies, a full range of legal advice and services to support the activities of companies, holding structures, financial and industrial groups etc.
In addition, we have numerous international contracts with companies from various countries, including the EAEU states, the People’s Republic of China and others. Moreover, we also confidently work with foreign clients on the international level.
Therefore, thanks to our professional team, I can say that the Bar protects without hesitation the rights of clients in completely different categories of cases. Based on the client’s needs for a specific case, we form an appropriate team of specialists capable of solving the assigned tasks at the highest level.
– What is the reason for your interest in the international direction?
– The interest of the Bar in the international direction is, first of all, due to the fact that significant changes are currently taking place in international relations, which directly affect the activities of organizations providing legal services.
Thus, a number of well-known large law firms have left the region. This process has led to less qualified organizations taking their place. The principles of work of the lawyers of the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ on the international arena are not very different from the principles that guide us in our domestic market.
That is, strict adherence to the law and legal ethics, providing our clients with the highest quality assistance across the entire legal spectrum, an individual approach and the search for unconventional solutions. We began to take an active part in various international forums, events, meetings, etc. Primarily, we want to position the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ as trustworthy and reliable legal association on the international arena.
We try to develop a community of allies in the Eurasian space through the relationships with foreign partners. That’s how we can improve the quality of provided legal assistance as well as we work together to eliminate the gaps in law that exist between our states.
– What are the typical problems for Russian legal entities in dealing with foreign partners?
– The most pressing legal issues today are directly related to changes in the political space, with unprecedented sanctions pressure. Certain barriers erected by a number of countries create difficulties for organizing a business and for operating on the international market for both companies and individuals. And this applies to the entire spectrum of interaction between countries in the Eurasian space; as a result, Russian business finds itself in all sorts of legal conflicts that require direct intervention from the competent legal authorities.
One of the problems when entering international markets is, first of all, the registration of legal organizations abroad, taxation issues (that is, which country our clients will be tax residents of), issues of non-fulfillment by foreign partners of their obligations under agreements and contracts, determination of locations dispute resolution and many other similar problems that, in the current conditions, may arise for Russian companies in the international market.
However, we should note that these problems also provide our companies with new opportunities, including profitable relationships in the new markets of Arab countries and the African region. These processes also require professional support, which the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ is ready to provide.
Unlike organizations responsible for international integration, lawyers meet in their practice with those problems that directly affect the daily activities of the business community and individuals who, for one reason or another, find themselves in difficult situations. First of all, it concerns, migration issues and logistics in international trade and supporting various transactions. I would especially like to note the activities of the association in the Chinese direction, where there was a need to organize interaction between our lawyers and colleagues from the People’s Republic of China.
– Managers starting a business in foreign markets often ask which lawyer is better to contact – a Russian or a foreign one.
– The fact is that providing legal assistance abroad, representation in certain state, law enforcement agencies, and courts requires a lawyer to have both in depth knowledge of national legislation and special legal status in the relevant country. The Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ resolves this problem. We have built a network of partner organizations in different regions, with which we can mutually assist each other in protecting the rights and interests of our clients. For Russian clients, this is a big advantage, since trusting a foreign law firm that they are not familiar with before is a big risk.
– Mr. Budantsev, you also became a Member of the General Council of the ‘New Era – New Ways’ World Forum. From the point of view of international law and new opportunities, what does this international platform offer to Russian companies, companies from other countries, national and international public organizations?
– The ‘New Era – New Ways’ World Forum is, in my opinion, a flexible and most effective association. It was created precisely in order to maximally optimize the existing mechanisms of integration processes. The World Forum is a public platform where both experts and authorities of various states are represented. This allows to identify problems, find ways to solve them, as well as to achieve the implementation of what is planned. There are quite a lot of issues related to integration processes – we will discuss.
For Russian and foreign companies, the World Forum is not only an opportunity to find new and reliable partners, but also a platform for creating mechanisms for conducting international business and developing tools for a multipolar world. Participants will be able to openly discuss their initiatives and jointly shape the future in various areas of public relations, business, and humanitarian cooperation.
One of the features of the ‘New Era– New Ways’ World Forum is that its functioning will be carried out on a regular basis, for which we are forming industry committees in various areas of public relations.
– What services can the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ offer to participants of the ‘New Era – New Ways’ World Forum?
– The Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ is certainly ready to offer comprehensive support to the participants of the World Forum. First of all, this is the opportunity to organize and conduct direct consultations on any legal problems, develop legal solutions and systematically build a legal model for companies’ activities. It will be interesting for foreign participants to provide assistance and represent their interests in government bodies of the Russian Federation and in the courts.
Furthermore, it is possible to create a special unified system for the exchange of experience between justice authorities, professional legal and advocacy structures of the Eurasian community, since direct contacts are much more effective, and the exchange of such experience helps to solve any problem with the highest quality possible. By the way, for these purposes, the Eurasian Lawyers Association is being created at the World Forum.
As some final words to the conversation with Eduard Budantsev, We would like to especially emphasize: in the modern world, the development of any projects, processes, programs and initiatives is simply unthinkable without thorough, reliable legal support. And the larger project or program, the more important an uncompromising legal foundation is for success. In international projects, underestimation of this factor is especially fraught. And the increase in global risks and unfriendly pressure ‘manifold’ increases the importance of professional legal participation. The experience of the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ from year to year confirms in practice these seemingly self-evident truths. As they say in one legal analytical program, everyone makes their own conclusions.
– The Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ was founded in 2003 by Anatoly Zlatoustovsky. The main goal of its creation is to provide highly qualified legal assistance both in Russia and abroad. At the same time, we try to respond in a flexible manner to new legal challenges in the constantly changing legal environment.
Over the past 20 years, the association has overcome a long way, full of various events. The Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ has acquired qualified personnel and earned high prestige among clients and fellow lawyers. We have formed a full fledged professional team of experienced specialists. A number of employees have been working for more than 10-15 years.
There are also employees whose almost entire working life from their student days is connected with the ‘Diktatura zakona’. We recruit young law students, help them to advance professionally and to obtain the status of a lawyer.
We follow the principle of mentoring young lawyers during the first three or four years of their career development.
The association’s priority is an individual approach to the client and a guarantee of full confidentiality. Throughout our legal assistance to clients, we always remember our main mission as lawyers – to protect the innocent, serve the public and ensure the rule of law in all its manifestations. The name of our Bar association is not just a claim or a successful logan.
This is the main goal for all our lawyers – to establish the dictatorship of the law. One of the significant events of last year was that our association moved into its own new functional building that was as convenient as possible for legal practice. Above all, we value our clients and their safety. As the result, many clients stay with us for many years.
– We know that the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ provides a wide range of legal services to both individuals and legal entities. Which areas of law are you the most confident?
– The team includes lawyers in almost all areas – civil, criminal, tax, family, international law. Among the association’s specialists there are employees who have scientific degrees and carry out teaching activities in the country’s leading law universities.
We cover practically the entire range of services. These are civil and arbitration cases, support of corporate procedures, bankruptcy cases, divorce proceedings, criminal cases, protection of clients’ interests in relations with law enforcement and other government agencies, a full range of legal advice and services to support the activities of companies, holding structures, financial and industrial groups etc.
In addition, we have numerous international contracts with companies from various countries, including the EAEU states, the People’s Republic of China and others. Moreover, we also confidently work with foreign clients on the international level.
Therefore, thanks to our professional team, I can say that the Bar protects without hesitation the rights of clients in completely different categories of cases. Based on the client’s needs for a specific case, we form an appropriate team of specialists capable of solving the assigned tasks at the highest level.
– What is the reason for your interest in the international direction?
– The interest of the Bar in the international direction is, first of all, due to the fact that significant changes are currently taking place in international relations, which directly affect the activities of organizations providing legal services.
Thus, a number of well-known large law firms have left the region. This process has led to less qualified organizations taking their place. The principles of work of the lawyers of the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ on the international arena are not very different from the principles that guide us in our domestic market.
That is, strict adherence to the law and legal ethics, providing our clients with the highest quality assistance across the entire legal spectrum, an individual approach and the search for unconventional solutions. We began to take an active part in various international forums, events, meetings, etc. Primarily, we want to position the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ as trustworthy and reliable legal association on the international arena.
We try to develop a community of allies in the Eurasian space through the relationships with foreign partners. That’s how we can improve the quality of provided legal assistance as well as we work together to eliminate the gaps in law that exist between our states.
– What are the typical problems for Russian legal entities in dealing with foreign partners?
– The most pressing legal issues today are directly related to changes in the political space, with unprecedented sanctions pressure. Certain barriers erected by a number of countries create difficulties for organizing a business and for operating on the international market for both companies and individuals. And this applies to the entire spectrum of interaction between countries in the Eurasian space; as a result, Russian business finds itself in all sorts of legal conflicts that require direct intervention from the competent legal authorities.
One of the problems when entering international markets is, first of all, the registration of legal organizations abroad, taxation issues (that is, which country our clients will be tax residents of), issues of non-fulfillment by foreign partners of their obligations under agreements and contracts, determination of locations dispute resolution and many other similar problems that, in the current conditions, may arise for Russian companies in the international market.
However, we should note that these problems also provide our companies with new opportunities, including profitable relationships in the new markets of Arab countries and the African region. These processes also require professional support, which the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ is ready to provide.
Unlike organizations responsible for international integration, lawyers meet in their practice with those problems that directly affect the daily activities of the business community and individuals who, for one reason or another, find themselves in difficult situations. First of all, it concerns, migration issues and logistics in international trade and supporting various transactions. I would especially like to note the activities of the association in the Chinese direction, where there was a need to organize interaction between our lawyers and colleagues from the People’s Republic of China.
– Managers starting a business in foreign markets often ask which lawyer is better to contact – a Russian or a foreign one.
– The fact is that providing legal assistance abroad, representation in certain state, law enforcement agencies, and courts requires a lawyer to have both in depth knowledge of national legislation and special legal status in the relevant country. The Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ resolves this problem. We have built a network of partner organizations in different regions, with which we can mutually assist each other in protecting the rights and interests of our clients. For Russian clients, this is a big advantage, since trusting a foreign law firm that they are not familiar with before is a big risk.
– Mr. Budantsev, you also became a Member of the General Council of the ‘New Era – New Ways’ World Forum. From the point of view of international law and new opportunities, what does this international platform offer to Russian companies, companies from other countries, national and international public organizations?
– The ‘New Era – New Ways’ World Forum is, in my opinion, a flexible and most effective association. It was created precisely in order to maximally optimize the existing mechanisms of integration processes. The World Forum is a public platform where both experts and authorities of various states are represented. This allows to identify problems, find ways to solve them, as well as to achieve the implementation of what is planned. There are quite a lot of issues related to integration processes – we will discuss.
For Russian and foreign companies, the World Forum is not only an opportunity to find new and reliable partners, but also a platform for creating mechanisms for conducting international business and developing tools for a multipolar world. Participants will be able to openly discuss their initiatives and jointly shape the future in various areas of public relations, business, and humanitarian cooperation.
One of the features of the ‘New Era– New Ways’ World Forum is that its functioning will be carried out on a regular basis, for which we are forming industry committees in various areas of public relations.
– What services can the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ offer to participants of the ‘New Era – New Ways’ World Forum?
– The Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ is certainly ready to offer comprehensive support to the participants of the World Forum. First of all, this is the opportunity to organize and conduct direct consultations on any legal problems, develop legal solutions and systematically build a legal model for companies’ activities. It will be interesting for foreign participants to provide assistance and represent their interests in government bodies of the Russian Federation and in the courts.
Furthermore, it is possible to create a special unified system for the exchange of experience between justice authorities, professional legal and advocacy structures of the Eurasian community, since direct contacts are much more effective, and the exchange of such experience helps to solve any problem with the highest quality possible. By the way, for these purposes, the Eurasian Lawyers Association is being created at the World Forum.
As some final words to the conversation with Eduard Budantsev, We would like to especially emphasize: in the modern world, the development of any projects, processes, programs and initiatives is simply unthinkable without thorough, reliable legal support. And the larger project or program, the more important an uncompromising legal foundation is for success. In international projects, underestimation of this factor is especially fraught. And the increase in global risks and unfriendly pressure ‘manifold’ increases the importance of professional legal participation. The experience of the Bar association ‘Diktatura zakona’ from year to year confirms in practice these seemingly self-evident truths. As they say in one legal analytical program, everyone makes their own conclusions.