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Law and Politics
Reference:

Public legal means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment: the modern experience of Russia and the Republic of Belarus.

Fedyanin Yurii Mikhailovich

Postgraduate student of the Department of Business and Energy Law of Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University

420008, Russia, Republic of Tatarstan, Kazan, Kremlevskaya str., 18

mikhail.fedyanin.00@mail.ru

DOI:

10.7256/2454-0706.2024.2.68678

EDN:

UTXMRA

Received:

10-10-2023


Published:

03-03-2024


Abstract: The subject of the research in this article is the experience of Russia and the Union State of the Republic of Belarus in protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment in terms of the use of public legal means of state regulation. The object of the study is regulatory documents, recommendations and other documents regulating the protection of national interests in the implementation of foreign investments in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus, existing national strategies and regulatory approaches. In the course of the study, the author used the method of system analysis, priority was given to special legal methods of cognition, among which methods of comparative legal analysis, theoretical and legal modeling should be highlighted. The author considers ways to overcome the sanctions pressure from unfriendly states, compares the legal restrictions imposed by the Union states and identifies their differences. The article provides a comparative analysis of the current approaches of the Republic of Belarus and Russia on the issues of ensuring the security of foreign investment, taking into account the transformation of the economies of states based primarily on domestic sources of investment financing.The author comes to the conclusion that the means of protecting public interests in the Republic of Belarus have proved effective in practice and can be recommended for use also in the Russian legal field. At the same time, the Russian financial market continues to adhere to the principle of openness and accessibility to foreign investors, but at present these principles are implemented only to the extent that does not contradict the maintenance of national financial sovereignty and are focused on friendly jurisdictions. And the creation of incentive measures to attract them is a new task in the development of legislation both in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus.


Keywords:

Foreign investments, protection of national interests, unfriendly jurisdictions, restrictive measures in Russia, restrictive measures in Belarus, attraction of domestic investments, development strategy, public-law remedies, ensuring the security of investments, attraction of foreign investments

This article is automatically translated.

Today, both in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus, there is a tendency to shift investment policy from the most-favored-nation regime for foreign investment to a policy of imposing restrictions on foreign investors in the national interests of the state. In this article, we propose to consider the experience of the Union state of Russia and Belarus in protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment in terms of the use of public law means of state regulation.

First of all, we note that with regard to the regulation of foreign investments, the very nature of investment relations is usually of a mixed private-public nature, although in legal science the opinions of scientists do not agree on this issue. Thus, some authors rightly, in our opinion, argue that "public interest is the most important dominant and criterion for the permissibility of using public principles in regulating investment relations"[1], and investment activity is aimed at ensuring not only the interests of the organizer of investment and investors, but also in the long term the interests of society[2]. At the same time, A.V. Mayfat points exclusively to the civil nature of investment relations, and I.Z. Farkhutdinov and V.A. Trapeznikov, defining the legal content of investment relations, refer them to a variety of civil relations [3, p. 90; 4, p. 43]. In turn, E.V. Terekhova, in contrast to this position, identifies a separate type of public investment relations, noting that "public law principles are manifested in those investment legal relations in which the state or other public entities themselves act as investors"[5, p. 30]. Taking into account the fact that even between business entities there may be a public interest to one degree or another, it should be recognized that the legal regulation of investment relations is carried out not only on the basis of general civil legislation, but also belonging to public branches of law.

One of the first tools in the field of protecting national interests in the implementation of foreign investments in Russia was established by Federal Law No. 57-FZ dated 04/29/2008 "On the procedure for Foreign Investments in Business Entities of Strategic Importance for ensuring national defense and state security" a special procedure for state control in relation to foreign investors investing in Russian companies of strategic importance. The said law established exclusions of a restrictive nature for a special entity, which included a foreign investor and a group of persons, which includes a foreign investor. And a company of strategic importance is a Russian business company that carries out at least one of the 50 types of activities listed in article 6 of the said law.

In this case, the state control itself represents the need to comply with the approval procedure in the Government Commission for the Control of Foreign Investments for the registration of transactions for the acquisition of shares (shares in the authorized capital) of a business company operating in the strategic industry. The procedure for passing this procedure is established by Articles 8-13 of the said Law No. 57-FZ and represents obtaining the approval of the Government Commission for Monitoring the Implementation of Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation. At the same time, the authorized state authority, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), interacts with the applicants, and initially the foreign investor must send a corresponding petition to the FAS of Russia.

In addition to the above restrictions, there are many prohibitions for foreign investors in Russia, they are scattered and contained in numerous federal laws adopted at different times, most often these prohibitions and restrictions relate to the acquisition of control in Russian business entities, such as: foundation (participation) of mass media (mass media), ownership of the right ownership of regional gas supply systems and gas distribution systems, ownership of agricultural land plots, banking, air transportation, certain types of insurance activities, diamond mining, private security activities, etc.

These legal means in the form of prohibitions and restrictions for foreign investors can be considered already established in the Russian legal field, at the same time, the prospects for the development of investment legislation depend on the ongoing changes in the geopolitical situation in the world and the reorientation of foreign trade and financial relations to friendly countries.

Faced with the sanctions pressure associated with the introduction of restrictive measures against Russia by foreign states, in December 2022, the Government of the Russian Federation adopted a new Strategy for the development of the financial market of the Russian Federation until 2030, according to which the key strategic objective of the development of the Russian financial market on the horizon until 2030 will be to strengthen its role in financing the accelerated transformation of the Russian economy from based primarily on internal sources of investment financing.

Also, a little earlier in March 2022, in Russia, in the form of additional temporary economic measures to ensure the financial stability of the Russian Federation, a special permissive procedure was introduced for transactions and transactions with foreign counterparties and persons controlled by them from states that imposed restrictions on Russia (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 03/01/2022 No. 81 "On additional temporary measures of an economic nature to ensure the financial stability of the Russian Federation"). The issuance of appropriate permits for transactions to obtain ownership of securities and property, as well as the issuance of loans and credits, was entrusted to the Government Commission for the Control of Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation. In September 2022, by the relevant Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated 09/08/2022 No. 618, the specified list of transactions was expanded to include transactions with shares in the authorized capital of Russian legal entities and some transactions.

Thus, the introduction of the considered restrictive measures has become one of the main means of protecting the national interests of the state of a public legal nature, which are of key importance for legal relations arising within the framework of foreign investments.

At the same time, the Russian Federation, even under the conditions of sanctions restrictions, maintains a focus on incentive measures that attract foreign investors to the domestic market. Thus, according to the above-mentioned Strategy for the Development of the Financial market of the Russian Federation until 2030, it is argued that it is necessary to create conditions for deepening the integration of the Russian financial market with the international one, while creating incentives for non-residents to invest in Russian financial instruments. Specifically for this purpose, it is proposed to simplify the work of Russian financial intermediaries with foreign investors and create favorable tax conditions for servicing foreign investors.  It is also planned to develop the issue of securities in the Russian jurisdiction by foreign issuers from friendly jurisdictions. Thus, legislation that is directly related to the field of financial law needs to be developed and elaborated. The ways of developing financial legislation are also being explored in scientific circles, in particular, we agree with E.L. Vasyanina's statement that the development of financial legislation should be aimed at finding effective legal means, one of the main directions of which is the specification of the conditions for granting subsidies at the level of the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, as well as the adoption of a set of measures to stimulate investment the activity of subsidy recipients and their effective use of budget funds[6].

Such legal mechanisms as rulemaking, namely the development of laws and legislative initiatives, are one of the key tools for the implementation of the Strategy adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Financial market of the Russian Federation until 2030 in the Russian Federation. At the same time, important areas of legislative activity are both the improvement of the existing regulatory framework and the creation of laws regulating fundamentally new spheres and areas of activity. The scientific literature currently also emphasizes the importance of introducing the concept of sustainable investment in the state regulation of the domestic economy, the development of private initiative of investors in difficult socio-economic conditions[7].

Along with rulemaking, an important mechanism for implementing the development strategy is the establishment by state regulatory authorities of requirements for supervised organizations, the application of soft and indirect regulatory measures to them in the form of recommendations, letters of explanation, standards of self-regulatory organizations, codes and other forms.

In this regard, the experience of the Republic of Belarus, which similarly found itself under the conditions of sanctions pressure associated with the introduction of restrictive measures by foreign states, is interesting. On March 14, 2022, the President of Belarus signed Decree No. 93 "On additional measures to ensure the stable functioning of the economy". According to paragraph 2.13 of the Decree, a measure was introduced to prohibit the alienation by foreign investors (who are persons from foreign countries who commit unfriendly acts against Belarusian legal entities and/or individuals) of shares (shares) in the authorized funds of such legal entities. This ban was introduced in order to prevent the withdrawal of capital from the country and is aimed at increasing the internal stability of the economy.

The corresponding list of persons subject to Decree No. 93 was approved in Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus No. 436 dated July 1, 2022, it also states that in order to protect the interests of the Republic of Belarus, on the basis of an order from the Ministry of Finance, shares are blocked on the accounts of the "depot" of their owners according to the list.

Further, by Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus "On Budget Financing" No. 386 on October 31, 2022, foreign investors from "unfriendly" countries were prohibited from reorganizing their business in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, as well as leaving it. According to the document, the reorganization of a legal entity of the Republic of Belarus included in the list, as well as the withdrawal from such a legal entity of a participant who is a person from a foreign state who commits unfriendly actions against Belarusian legal entities and (or) individuals, is prohibited. Some paragraphs of the Decree are hidden by the mark "for official use", based on those that are officially published, it can be concluded that the means of protecting the public interests of the Republic of Belarus are expanding. For foreign investors from "unfriendly countries" who fell into the circle of subjects of restrictions, thus, they became unacceptable:

- alienation of shares (shares) in the authorized funds of such legal entities;

- business reorganization;

- the withdrawal of a participant who is a person from a foreign state who commits unfriendly actions against Belarusian legal entities and (or) individuals is prohibited.

Once again, these measures apply only to organizations officially included in the List approved by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus. At the time of its adoption on July 1, 2022, it included 190 persons, then it was repeatedly amended and supplemented, including some legal entities were excluded from it. As of June 10, 2023, it already includes 1,795 legal entities.

For these entities, however, it remained not prohibited to carry out the liquidation procedure or transfer the organization to the so-called "dormant" mode, in connection with which on January 3, 2023, the Law of the Republic of Belarus No. 239-Z "On issues of transfer to temporary external management" was adopted. According to article 1 of the adopted law, it became possible to transfer commercial organizations under temporary external management, the owners (participants) of which are persons from foreign countries, in cases when the management of the organization by executive and (or) other management bodies has actually been terminated; or the management bodies of the organization carry out economically unjustified actions that may lead to the actual termination of activities, liquidation and (or) bankruptcy of such a commercial organization, causing damage to the organization. It is also allowed to transfer under temporary external management in other cases determined by the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.

This law was adopted in order to exclude the unjustified termination of the activities of commercial organizations, causing damage to their labor collectives and ensuring the normal break-even operation of commercial organizations.

It should be noted that these means of protecting public interests in the Republic of Belarus have proved effective in practice and can be recommended for use also in the Russian legal field. In Russia, under the conditions of sanctions pressure from foreign countries, they mainly focused on measures to buy out businesses by other investors, the introduction of external management, etc. At the same time, in Russia, the business of outgoing companies was bought out by local investors, and many companies with foreign capital could not be saved. In Belarus, on the contrary, it was possible to keep many companies with foreign capital due to the above-mentioned legal restrictions. Most investors have been forced to extend their presence and, if the geopolitical situation improves, they may keep their business in Belarus.

Currently, the growth trend of foreign direct investment continues in Belarus, as noted by economists in 2022, they increased by more than 15%, and in the first quarter of 2023 by 1.3% compared to the same period last year, the share of reinvestment is also increasing[8]. Thus, the owners do not leave the market, and foreign investments remain in Belarus. Due to incentive measures to attract investments, the number of investors from "friendly" countries of the Middle and Far East increased by 70%.

Thus, to date, the main public legal means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus have become restrictive measures against foreign investors from unfriendly jurisdictions, discussed in this article. Such means of protecting public interests in the Republic of Belarus as banning foreign investors from unfriendly countries from leaving, as well as the alienation of shares and business reorganization, as well as the transfer of commercial organizations to external management in the event of the actual termination of the management of the organization have proved effective in practice and can be recommended for use also in the Russian legal field.

It should also be noted that Russian investment legislation, which is directly related to the field of financial law, needs to be worked out. In particular, the Russian financial market continues to adhere to the principle of openness and accessibility to foreign investors. But at present, these principles are implemented only to the extent that they do not contradict the maintenance of national financial sovereignty and are oriented towards friendly jurisdictions. And the creation of incentive measures to attract them is a new task in the development of legislation both in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus.

References
1. Kasenova, M. B. (2006). Correlation of public and private principles in Russian investment law. Lawyer, 8, 77-84.
2. Grishakin, D. A. (2008). Administrative and legal methods of regulation of foreign investments. Administrative and municipal law, 9, 14.
3. Mayfat, A.V. (2006). Civil-legal constructions of investment. Moscow: Volters Kluver.
4. Farkhutdinov, I.Z., & Trapeznikov V.A. (2006). Investment law: Textbook-practical. manual. Moscow: Volters Kluwer.
5. Terekhova, E.V. (2015). Investment law: public law principles: textbook. Moscow: RSUP.
6. Vasyanina, E.L. (2022). Formation of a modern model of legal regulation of financial relations. Financial law, 11, 2-6.
7. Belitskaya, A.V. (2023). Legal incentives for investing in sustainable development. Law and business, 1, 5-11.
8. Chebotar, Y. (2023). "One district-one project" What is being done in Belarus to attract investment and support business ideas. Retrieved from https://www.belta.by/interview/view/odin-rajon-odin-proekt-chto-v-belarusi-delaetsja-dlja-privlechenija-investitsij-i-podderzhki-biznes-idej-8768

First Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the research in the article submitted for review is, as its name implies, public legal means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment. The author focuses on the analysis of the modern experience of Russia and the Republic of Belarus. The declared boundaries of the study have been observed by the scientist. The methodology of the research is not disclosed in the text of the article, but it is obvious that the author used universal dialectical, logical, descriptive, statistical, formal legal, comparative legal research methods. The relevance of the research topic chosen by the scientist is justified as follows: "Today, both in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus, there is a tendency to shift investment policy from the most-favored-nation regime for foreign investment to a policy of setting restrictions for foreign investors in the national interests of the state. In this article, we propose to consider the experience of Russia and the Union state of the Republic of Belarus in protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment in terms of the use of public law means of state regulation." Additionally, the author needs to list the names of the leading scientists involved in the study of the problems raised in the article, as well as reveal the degree of their study. It is not explicitly stated what the scientific novelty of the study is. In fact, it manifests itself in the scientist's coverage of the current state of protection of Russian national interests in the field of foreign investment and a number of proposals for its improvement, taking into account the positive experience of the Republic of Belarus. Thus, the article makes a definite contribution to the development of domestic legal science and deserves the attention of the readership. The scientific style of the research is fully sustained by the author. The structure of the work is quite logical. In the introductory part of the article, the scientist substantiates the relevance of his chosen research topic. In the main part of the article, the author analyzes modern measures to protect national interests in the field of foreign investment in Russia and the Republic of Belarus, taking into account the current geopolitical situation. The final part of the work contains general conclusions based on the results of the study. The content of the article corresponds to its title, but is not without some drawbacks. Thus, the author writes: "In this article we propose to consider the experience of Russia and the Union state of the Republic of Belarus in protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment in terms of the use of public law means of state regulation." There is a typo. Of course, we are talking about the union state of Russia and Belarus, and not about the union state of the Republic of Belarus. The scientist notes: "... the very nature of investment relations is usually of a mixed administrative and legal nature. Thus, some authors rightly argue that "public interest is the most important dominant and criterion for the permissibility of using public principles in regulating investment relations"[1], and investment activity is aimed at ensuring not only the interests of the organizer of investment and investors, but also the interests of society in the long term[2]." Apparently, the mixed nature of investment relations is understood not as their "administrative and legal nature", but as a private-public nature, which is confirmed by the cited sources. The scientist needs to indicate in which areas the Russian legislation regulating foreign investments needs to be improved. The bibliography of the study is presented by 3 sources (scientific articles and analytical data), not counting the normative material. From a formal point of view, this is enough, from the actual point of view, some provisions of the work need to be clarified. There is no appeal to opponents as such, which is unacceptable for a scientific article. The author refers to a number of theoretical works solely to confirm his judgments or to illustrate certain provisions of the study. The scientist does not enter into a scientific discussion with specific opponents. Conclusions based on the results of the conducted research are available ("Thus, to date, the main public legal means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus have become restrictive measures against foreign investors from unfriendly jurisdictions, discussed in this article. Some of the means of protecting public interests in the Republic of Belarus have proven effective in practice and can be recommended for use in the Russian legal field as well. It should also be noted that, in particular, the Russian financial market continues to adhere to the principle of openness and accessibility to foreign investors. But at present, these principles are implemented only to the extent that they do not contradict the maintenance of national financial sovereignty and are oriented towards friendly jurisdictions. And the creation of incentive measures to attract them is a new task in the development of legislation both in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus"), but they are general in nature and need to be specified (in particular, it should be indicated which means of protecting public interests in the Republic of Belarus have proved effective and can be recommended for use in Russian practice, as well as in which areas Russian investment legislation needs to be improved). The article must be carefully proofread. It contains typos, omissions of words, punctuation and stylistic errors. The interest of the readership in the article submitted for review can be shown primarily by specialists in the field of business law and administrative law, provided that it is finalized: additional justification of the relevance of the chosen research topic, disclosure of its methodology, clarification of certain provisions of the work, introduction of elements of discussion, concretization of conclusions based on the results of the study, elimination of violations in the design of the article.

Second Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

A REVIEW of an article on the topic "Public law means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment: the modern experience of Russia and the Republic of Belarus". The subject of the study. The article proposed for review is devoted to topical issues of public law means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment on the basis of legislation and practice of its application in Russia and Belarus. The authors analyze some of the measures applicable in these States, as well as propose mechanisms for improving legislation. The subject of the study was, first of all, the opinions of scientists and the provisions of normative legal acts of Russia and the Republic of Belarus. Research methodology. The purpose of the study is not stated directly in the article. At the same time, it can be clearly understood from the title and content of the work. The purpose can be designated as the consideration and resolution of certain problematic aspects of the issue of public legal means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment on the basis of legislation and practice of its application in Russia and Belarus. Based on the set goals and objectives, the author has chosen the methodological basis of the study. In particular, the author uses a set of general scientific methods of cognition: analysis, synthesis, analogy, deduction, induction, and others. In particular, the methods of analysis and synthesis made it possible to summarize and share the conclusions of various scientific approaches to the proposed topic, as well as draw specific conclusions from the doctrinal literature. The most important role was played by special legal methods. In particular, the author actively applied the formal legal method, which made it possible to analyze and interpret the norms of current legislation (first of all, the norms of the public law legislation of Russia and the Republic of Belarus). For example, the following conclusion of the author: "The Russian Federation, even under the conditions of sanctions restrictions, maintains a focus on stimulating measures that attract foreign investors to the domestic market. Thus, according to the above-mentioned Strategy for the Development of the Financial market of the Russian Federation until 2030, it is argued that it is necessary to create conditions for deepening the integration of the Russian financial market with the international one, while creating incentives for non-residents to invest in Russian financial instruments. Specifically for this purpose, it is proposed to simplify the work of Russian financial intermediaries with foreign investors and create favorable tax conditions for servicing foreign investors. It is also planned to develop the issue of securities in the Russian jurisdiction by foreign issuers from friendly jurisdictions. Thus, legislation that is directly related to the field of financial law needs to be developed and elaborated." Unfortunately, the author has not fully used the possibilities of empirical methods of cognition. In the context of this study, specific examples of the implementation of public law means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment in practice could be given. Thus, the methodology chosen by the author is fully adequate to the purpose of the study, allows us to study all aspects of the topic in its entirety, but can be clarified by significantly expanding the empirical base of the study. Relevance. The relevance of the stated issues is beyond doubt. There are both theoretical and practical aspects of the significance of the proposed topic. From the point of view of theory, the topic of public law means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment is complex and ambiguous. The special international socio-economic situation is pushing Russia and other countries to create certain regulations in the field of investment, in particular, in order to ensure state interests and security. It is difficult to argue with the author that "Today, both in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus, there is a tendency to shift investment policy from the most-favored-nation regime for foreign investment to a policy of imposing restrictions on foreign investors in the national interests of the state." This aspect is subject to detailed discussion. Thus, scientific research in the proposed field should only be welcomed. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the proposed article is beyond doubt. Firstly, it is expressed in the author's specific conclusions. Among them, for example, is the following conclusion: "to date, the main public legal means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus have become restrictive measures against foreign investors from unfriendly jurisdictions, discussed in this article. Such means of protecting public interests in the Republic of Belarus as banning foreign investors from unfriendly countries from leaving, as well as the alienation of shares and business reorganization, as well as the transfer of commercial organizations to external management in the event of the actual termination of the management of the organization have proved effective in practice and can be recommended for use also in the Russian legal field." These and other theoretical conclusions can be used in further scientific research. Secondly, the author suggests ideas for improving the current legislation. In particular, "the Russian investment legislation, which is directly related to the branch of financial law, needs to be worked out. In particular, the Russian financial market continues to adhere to the principle of openness and accessibility to foreign investors. But at present, these principles are implemented only to the extent that they do not contradict the maintenance of national financial sovereignty and are oriented towards friendly jurisdictions. And the creation of incentive measures to attract them is a new task in the development of legislation both in Russia and in the Republic of Belarus." The above conclusion may be relevant and useful for law-making activities. Thus, the materials of the article may be of particular interest to the scientific community in terms of contributing to the development of science. Style, structure, content. The subject of the article corresponds to the specialization of the journal "Law and Politics", as it is devoted to legal problems related to the regulation of investment activities in various countries. The content of the article fully corresponds to the title, as the author considered the stated problems and achieved the research goal. The quality of the presentation of the study and its results should be recognized as fully positive. The subject, objectives, methodology and main results of the study follow directly from the text of the article. The design of the work generally meets the requirements for this kind of work. No significant violations of these requirements were found. Bibliography. The quality of the literature used should not be appreciated very highly. The author actively uses the literature presented by authors from Russia (Grishakin D.A., Farkhutdinov I.Z., Trapeznikov V.A., Belitskaya A.V., etc.). At the same time, there are not many sources themselves, in fact, quotations on them are found only at the beginning of the article (in the literature review). It should also be noted that most of the sources were published quite a long time ago. Thus, the works of the above authors correspond to the research topic, but do not have a sign of sufficiency, do not contribute to the disclosure of various aspects of the topic. Appeal to opponents. The author should expand the theoretical basis of the study and analyze all points of view on the problem. Conclusions, the interest of the readership. The article may be of interest to the readership in terms of the systematic positions of the author in relation to issues of public law means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment on the basis of legislation and practice of its application in Russia and Belarus, however, only after expanding the theoretical and empirical base of the study, discussing various points of view on the stated issue. Based on the above, summarizing all the positive and negative sides of the article, "I recommend sending it for revision"

Third Peer Review

Peer reviewers' evaluations remain confidential and are not disclosed to the public. Only external reviews, authorized for publication by the article's author(s), are made public. Typically, these final reviews are conducted after the manuscript's revision. Adhering to our double-blind review policy, the reviewer's identity is kept confidential.
The list of publisher reviewers can be found here.

The subject of the study. In the peer-reviewed article "Public legal means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment: the modern experience of Russia and the Republic of Belarus", the subject of the study is the norms of the law of the Union state providing for the protection of national interests by means of a public legal nature in the field of foreign investment. Research methodology. When writing the article, such methods were used as: logical, historical, theoretical and predictive, formal legal, system-structural, comparative law and legal modeling. The methodological apparatus consists of the following dialectical techniques and methods of scientific cognition: analysis, abstraction, induction, deduction, hypothesis, analogy, synthesis, typology, classification, systematization and generalization. The work used a combination of empirical and theoretical information. The use of modern methods made it possible to study established approaches, views on the subject of research, to develop an author's position and to argue it. The relevance of research. The relevance of the research topic stated by the author is beyond doubt. The author rightly notes that "... legal means in the form of prohibitions and restrictions for foreign investors can be considered already established in the Russian legal field, at the same time, the prospects for the development of investment legislation depend on the ongoing changes in the geopolitical situation in the world and the reorientation of foreign trade and financial relations to friendly countries." These circumstances indicate the relevance of doctrinal developments on this topic in order to improve rulemaking and the practice of its application. Scientific novelty. Without questioning the importance of previous scientific research, which served as the theoretical basis for this work, nevertheless, it can be noted that this article for the first time formulated noteworthy provisions, for example: "... Such means of protecting public interests in the Republic of Belarus as a ban on foreign investors from unfriendly countries to exit, as well as the alienation of shares and the reorganization of the business, as well as the transfer of commercial organizations to external management in the event of the actual termination of the management of the organization, have proved effective in practice and can be recommended for use also in the Russian legal field." Based on the results of writing the article, the author has made a number of theoretical conclusions and suggestions, which indicates not only the importance of this study for legal science, but also determines its practical significance. Style, structure, content. The article is written in a scientific style, using special legal terminology. The material is presented consistently and clearly. There are some typos in the text (standing, Respubics). Punctuation rules in sentences are not always followed. The article is structured. It seems that the introduction does not fully meet the requirements for this part of the scientific article. And also, in conclusion, it would be necessary to formulate the main results that the author achieved during the research. The comments are advisory in nature. The topic is disclosed, the content of the article corresponds to its title. Bibliography. The author has used an insufficient number of doctrinal sources (at least 10 sources for a scientific article), few references to publications of recent years. References to sources are designed in accordance with the requirements of the bibliographic GOST. Appeal to opponents. A scientific discussion is presented on certain issues of the stated topic, and appeals to opponents are correct. All borrowings are decorated with links to the author and the source of the publication. Conclusions, the interest of the readership. The article "Public law means of protecting national interests in the field of foreign investment: the modern experience of Russia and the Republic of Belarus" is recommended for publication. The article corresponds to the subject of the journal "Law and Politics" and corresponds to its editorial policy. The article is written on an urgent topic, has practical significance and is characterized by scientific novelty. This article may be of interest to a wide readership, primarily specialists in the field of financial law and business law, and will also be useful for teachers and students of law schools and faculties.