Bilateral Investment Treaties

Russia is party to some 69 treaties in force which contain investment provisions; for a full list, see http://investmentpolicyhub.unctad.org/IIA . Russia is a signatory but never ratified and ultimately terminated its application to the European Energy Charter Treaty, which includes a mechanism for investor-State dispute settlement.

Four regional integration agreements include the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) treaty (with Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan), the Belarus-Kazakhstan-Russia agreement on services and investment, the Common Economic Zone Agreement (with Belarus, Kazakhstan, Ukraine), and the European Union-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). As a member of the EAEU, Russia is party to the EAEU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which contains investment provisions; individual member countries of the EAEU generally retain authority to enter into their own bilateral investment treaties. The EAEU is currently negotiating a preferential trade agreement (PTA) with Iran, which it expects to sign in May 2018. In January 2018, the EAEU and India announced plans to sign an FTA in the near future. The EAEU is also negotiating FTAs with other countries, including China, Singapore, and Turkey.

The United States and Russia signed a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) in 1992; however, it was never ratified by Russia and is not in force. A U.S.-Russian dialogue to explore prospects for negotiating a new BIT ceased upon Russia’s purported annexation of Crimea in 2014. As such, investors from the two countries have no protections beyond domestic laws.

Bilateral Taxation Treaties

The U.S.-Russia Income Tax Convention, in effect since 1994, was designed to address the issue of double taxation and fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital. The treaty is available at https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-trty/russia.pdf . In total, Russia is party to 82 double taxation treaties; the Russian Ministry of Finance’s list (in Russian) is available at http://minfin.ru/ru/document/?id_4=117045 .