From 17 November through 23 November 2014 the International Urban Planning Week - Urban Week - was held in Saint Petersburg. Urban Week is a series of events dedicated to town planning and land-use planning in Saint Petersburg. This is a large-scale project under the aegis of which there were held more than 18 conferences, master classes, lectures and presentations involving about 1,700 public officers, professionals, representatives of social movements and interested urban residents.

The main event of the first day of Urban Week was PROURBAN forum. During the plenary session the prospects of the development of the Strategy-2030 and plans of the Coordination Council on Preservation, Management and Promotion of the UNESCO World Heritage Site were discussed. Public officers informed that 17 government programs aimed to bring the Strategy-2030 program in conformity with realia and needs of Saint Petersburg have already been approved and included in the budget. According to the chairman of the Committee for Economic Policy and Strategic Planning of Saint Petersburg, Mr Anatoly Kotov, an agreement with respect to cooperation in course of the implementation of the Strategy was scheduled to be signed in December with more than 20 professional associations and organisations of the city.

It was on 19 November 2014 when the participants of the conference "Vasilievsky Island. Negotiations" discussed prospects of the development of the Vasileostrovsky District which will gain a new development impetus through the improvement of transport infrastructure, development of artificial lands and re-development of former industrial sites.

Evgeny Druzhinin, the head of real estate and construction of Maxima Legal, commented on the event:

"It is nice to see that even in an adverse economic and political situation developers are optimistic about their project portfolio and do not expect crucial disruption to happen. However, one should remember that in order to obtain viable results both public officers and business community members should arrive at a common view and commence the implementation of the programs targeted to improve infrastructure and land-use planning dynamically. Being an authorised representative of Maxima Legal in some associations, working groups and expert councils I may safely say that current situation on the real estate and development market calls for strong and prompt actions of each of us. And the authorities finally seem to pay due regard to real estate and construction after a recent period when their interest in this sphere has dropped".

Maxima Legal lawyers launched cooperation with a major player on the regional pharmaceutical market - POLYSAN Scientific Technological Pharmaceutical Firm.

POLYSAN is a Russian manufacturer of unique medicinal products in demand both in Russia and on the external markets, including the CIS and non-CIS countries, such as the following Southeast Asia countries (to list the principle ones). Abiding by the innovative development path POLYSAN creates "next generation" medicinal products notable for their advanced efficiency.

For details please see

Maxima Legal advises POLYSAN on a number of legal issues related to the development of the international pharmaceutical projects of the company.

A common initiative of Maxima Legal and the Ryazan Region Development Corporation (RRDC) - a Business Guide to the Ryazan Region - was published this October.

The first copies of the booklet were presented to the business community on the 7th of October during the Investment Days of the Ryazan Region in Moscow. The guests of the event organised by the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Ryazan Region together with the RRDC were the first to get acquainted with the book where the principle aspects of the investment prospects of the region were briefly summarized. The authors of the guide paid special attention to legal regulation of the Ryazan Region business activity:

"For already four years we have been analysing and interpreting Russian laws for foreign businessmen issuing our company book Doing Business in Russia", Maxima Legal's partner, Mr Vladimir Kilinkarov comments. - "Knowing that every specific region in Russia should be considered individually subject to its characteristic features reflected in its regulation we have been cherishing the idea of creating of precisely this "region-oriented" edition for a long time. That is why we readily responded to the proposal of the Ryazan Region Development Corporation to combine our efforts and implemented the project promptly."

On the 7th of October in the conference hall of Radisson Royal Hotel in Saint Petersburg an annual meeting of the Norwegian-Russian Chamber of Commerce (NRCC) took place.

The NRCC is a nongovernmental organisation established in 2003 by a Norwegian business community. More than 130 Norwegian and Russian organisations and companies accounting for more than 70 per cent of exports from Norway to Russia are members of the Chamber at the moment. The following organisations are among the Chamber members: Bank 1 Oslo, State Housing Bank of Norway (Husbanken), DnB Nor (Norway largest financial group), D&F Group companies, Norway trade exhibitions, Norway Sea Food Export Council, NFO (Confederation of Norwegian Enterprises), Povolzhsky Fish Company, StatOil and others.

During the meeting Maxima Legal was formally introduced to the guests as a new member of the Chamber ready to make its own contribution to the development of the bilateral relationships. 

Mr Maxim Avrashkov, the managing partner of Maxima Legal, delivered a complimentary speech to the NRCC members:

"We are very glad to be among people committed to the positive, meaningful and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Our firm is Russian in terms of its incorporation, and European in terms of applicable standards. Therefore, we are ready to act as a mediator assisting Russian enterprises to establish foreign contacts and encouraging foreign firms to come to the Russian market and grow rapidly on it. On this account our goals coincide with those of the Chamber: we are intended to make business more successful".

A partner, the head of public private partnership of Maxima Legal, Vladimir Kilinkarov, clarifies to a Kommersant reporter the procedure for and prospects of the PPP federal reform in Russia:

Step Forwards by // Companies Business Guide [Supplement to Kommersant newspaper] No. 175 dated 29 September 2014, p. 50