To follow up with our comparative international bankruptcy tour, the Russian Economic Development Ministry has recently drafted an amendment to the bankruptcy laws allowing Russians to file for personal bankruptcy protection – so long as their debt exceeds 50,000 rubles (approximately $1,785) and they are unable to repay it within six months. The current law, which went into effect in 2009, has many similarities to United States, and Massachusetts’ personal bankruptcy law: the court will examine transactions that occurred within the past three (3) years to determine if they were “suspicious transactions” or preferential transactions.” The proposed law calls for a restructuring plan which may be similar to our Chapter 13 personal bankruptcy.
Our article earlier this month on Canadian personal bankruptcy highlighted the statistics there regarding numbers of Canadians filing for personal bankruptcy protection. Unfortunately, we can find no such statistics for Russia. While Canadian comparisons may be more interesting because we are neighbors and have similar economies, with the flattening of the world, it would be interesting to know how our former cold war adversaries are doing, on a comparative basis.