The procedure for registering legal entities the authorised capital of which contains foreign capital is set by the federal law “On State Registration of Legal Entities” with the specific features set forth by the federal law “On Foreign Investments in the Russian Federation”.

According to the law, state registration of a legal entity means an act issued by the federal agency of the executive power on which basis data about the establishment, re-organisation and liquidation of legal entities and also other information (organisational and legal form of the legal entity, its address; information about the legal entity's founders; the authorised stock value; information about the licenses held by the legal entity, etc.) are recorded to the state registry.

According the Decree of the Russian Federation's Government No. 319 dated 17 May 2002, the Russian Federation's Ministry for Taxes and Duties is appointed the authorised federal agency of the executive power in charge of registering legal entities beginning from 1 July 2002.

The legal entities, the authorised capital of which contains foreign capital, are registered according to the same procedure as the legal entities without foreign capital. Restrictive waivers for foreign investors may only be set forth by a federal law and only in the amount which is needed for the protection of the Constitution, morality, health, rights and legal interests of third parties and also for ensuring the national defence and security.

The state registration procedure is performed at the location of the permanent executive body (collegial or individual) within a five-day period.

The application for the state registration of a newly established legal entity should contain the following documents to be submitted to the registering agency:

- application for the state registration filled in in accordance with the established procedure;

- document confirming the legal entity's establishment (report, agreement or any other document);

- legal entity's foundation documents;

- extract from the registry of foreign legal entities of the originating country or a legally equivalent proof of the legal status of the foreign founding legal entity;

- document confirming the state duty payment.

No later than one day after the state registration date the registering agency issues (or sends by mail) to the applicant the document confirming that the record to the state registry has been made .

The state registration can only be refused in the two following cases:

1. the applicant failed to submit the documents required for the state registration which are listed above;

2. the documents have been submitted to a wrong registering agency.

The decision on the refusal in the state registration is made within a five-day period. Such a decision may be contested at courts. If a registering agency refuses to perform the state registration, evades from the state registration or violates the state registration procedure, it must compensate the damage inflicted provided it is established that the violations were made by the agency's fault. The applicants are accountable in accordance with law for submitting untrustworthy information required for including in the state registry.