The Ministry of Finance proposed to ban the audit of strategic companies by foreigners

The Russian Ministry of Finance has proposed to prohibit auditing the financial statements of strategic enterprises by audit organizations that are controlled by foreigners or are part of the same group as a foreign or international company. It is proposed to make appropriate changes to the law «On Auditing Activities».

Strategic organizations are financial companies and federal unitary enterprises that are strategically important for the military-industrial complex and the country’s security and organizations included in the consolidated register of organizations of the military-industrial complex.

Starting with the reporting for 2023, only organizations that are not controlled by a foreign citizen, legal entity, a stateless person, or an international company will be able to conduct an audit of such companies. The director of an audit organization must also have only one citizenship — Russian.

The selected auditors will not be able to attract foreign auditors to help and companies that do not meet the requirements mentioned above.