ST. PETERSBURG, June 14 (RAPSI) – Russia’s Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika will take part in the St. Petersburg Economic Forum for the first time to speak on the protection of business with regard to both Russian and foreign investors, RBC news agency reported on Tuesday, citing Alexander Kurennoy, spokesman for the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Chaika is to address the issues of sticking to law in the business sector, according to RBC. He will also report on routine inspections. Kurennoy claims that the Prosecutor’s Office is doing its best to diminish the number of planned and unannounced inspections initiated by regulatory agencies as agreed with prosecutors. However, the number of unannounced inspections carried without consultations with the Prosecutor’s Office is on the rise.

The Prosecutor General’s Office is also interested in enhancing communication with business that faces problems caused by criminals. A communication service will be launched to meet this goal with restricted access for the officials of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Nobody will have access to the service, except Chaika and Alexey Pukhov, the Head of the Prosecutor General’s Office Department for Supervision over Observance of Businesspersons’ Rights, Kurennoy is quoted as having said. Chaika is going to deal with incoming information on the daily basis.

Overall, in 2015 regulatory agencies carried out 1.994 million inspections, by 8 per cent less than in 2014 (2.17 million inspections). At the same time, the number of unannounced compliance assessments made 1.32 million (an increase from 65 per cent to 66 per cent of the total), according to the Prosecutor General’s Office. A trend towards an increase in the number of unannounced checks has been confirmed by the Ministry of Economic Development.

Prosecutors in 2015 overturned more than 2,200 orders to commence action over alleged economic crimes and thwarted about 500 violations committed in the framework of operations against businessmen. 

Some representatives of business advocacy organizations have noted that on the whole the Prosecutor’s Office sides with business. Thus, earlier the Prosecutor General’s Office has demanded to dismiss criminal proceedings against Dmitriy Kamenshchik, the Domodedovo airport owner charged in relation to the terrorist attack in 2011.

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) is an annual international conference dedicated to economic and business issues. SPIEF attracts over 10,000 international and Russian participants, including government and business leaders, as well as leading global voices from academia, the media, and civil society. The Forum first took place in 1997 and since 2006, it has been held under the auspices of the President of the Russian Federation.