On May 5, 2020, a law comes into force that establishes the procedure for experimenting on the use of employment in electronic form without their duplicating on paper documents by certain employers and employees. More detailed rules for experimenting will be set out in the regulations on conducting the experiment, which must be approved by the Russian Ministry of Labor.

Deputies of the Moscow city Duma introduced a bill suggesting adding provisions for remote work to the Labour Code. The ground for making such amendments are the difficulties in formalising transfer of employees to remote work which the employers faced during the pandemic.

In its recent Ruling, the Russian Constitutional court clarified the provisions of the Labor Code regarding the conclusion of a fixed-term employment contract with persons who are employed to perform certain work when the date of completion of work cannot be determined by a specific date (paragraph 8, part 1 of article 59 of the Labor Code).

On 27 May 2020 WIPO launched new online business service, WIPO PROOF, that provides tamper-proof evidence of the existence at a point in time of any digital file, including data sets, in any format.

16 May 2020 the Russian Government enacted the rules on online sales and delivery of medicines (the Rules). According to the Rules, online sales of medicines are allowed. The exceptions are: RX medicines, narcotic and psychotropic medicines, and medicines containing more than 25% ethyl alcohol.

The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted the Law¹ in the third reading which provides the opportunity to require early termination of leases for tenants affected by the deteriorating economic situation resulting from the spread of a new coronavirus infection. The final version of the Law in this part has undergone multiple fundamental changes.

This refers to the fast track registration and conduct of clinical trials, which is valid until January 1, 2021 and is worked out for medical drugs potentially effective in the fight against COVID-19.

On April 30, 2020, The Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as “the SC”) adopted the Review on certain matters of judicial practice related to the application of legislation and measures to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) No. 2 (hereinafter “Review”). The release of the second review was known in advance: it was reported on the official website of the SC, and after the release of the first review many unresolved issues remained.

In view of the ruling of the Presidium of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Presidium of the Council of Judges of the Russian Federation from March 18, 2020 Russian courts have been working in a new “self-isolated” regime for just over a month. Personal reception of citizens in courts is suspended, it is recommended to submit documents through electronic reception of courts, and courts are considering only certain categories of cases.

Federal law No 123-FZ sets a legal framework in Moscow for the development and implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The experimental legal framework is established for five years starting from 1 July 2020.