Russia keeps two separate registers of business entities. Legal entities are entered in the Единый государственный реестр юридических лиц — ЕГРЮЛ (Unified State Register of Legal Entities) and individual entrepreneurs in the Единый государственный реестр индивидуальных предпринимателей — ЕГРИП (Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs). Both are maintained by the Федеральная налоговая служба — ФНС России (Federal Tax Service), and free electronic extracts signed with a qualified electronic signature are available to anyone at egrul.nalog.ru.

The company registry in Russia

The registers are governed by Федеральный закон от 08.08.2001 № 129-ФЗ «О государственной регистрации юридических лиц и индивидуальных предпринимателей» (Federal Law No. 129-FZ of 8 August 2001 on the state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs), which sets out separately what each register contains. The tax service registers through its inspectorates and a centralised data-processing unit. Two categories follow a special route while still ending up in the same register: credit institutions are registered with the participation of the Банк России (Bank of Russia), and non-commercial organisations through the Министерство юстиции (Ministry of Justice), with the entry itself made by the tax service.

Identifiers are the ОГРН (principal state registration number) for legal entities, the ОГРНИП for individual entrepreneurs and the ИНН (taxpayer identification number), which is also the practical search key. Registration, amendment, reorganisation and liquidation can be filed online through the tax service’s state registration service, which includes an express route for setting up an individual entrepreneur or a limited liability company.

A second disclosure resource sits alongside the registers: the Единый федеральный реестр юридически значимых сведений о фактах деятельности юридических лиц (Unified Federal Register of Legally Significant Information on the Activities of Legal Entities), commonly called Федресурс, established by the same law. It is open and publicly available, and the tax service must feed register-derived facts into it within a short statutory period.

Branches and representative offices of foreign legal entities are not entered in the register of legal entities at all: they are accredited by the tax service and recorded in a dedicated state register of accredited branches and representative offices.

Legal forms that can be registered in Russia

Chapter 4 of the Гражданский кодекс Российской Федерации (Civil Code of the Russian Federation) contains a closed list of forms.

Commercial organisations:

  • Общество с ограниченной ответственностью — ООО (Limited liability company) — members are not liable for the company’s obligations beyond their contributions; the default vehicle for almost all Russian business.
  • Акционерное общество — АО, публичное или непубличное (Joint-stock company, public or non-public) — shareholders risk only the value of their shares; the public company is the form used for public offerings and listing.
  • Полное товарищество (General partnership) — partners bear unlimited joint and several liability; rare in practice.
  • Товарищество на вере, коммандитное товарищество (Limited partnership) — general partners are unlimitedly liable while contributors risk only their contribution; also rare.
  • Крестьянское (фермерское) хозяйство (Peasant or farm enterprise) — an agricultural production entity whose members bear subsidiary liability.
  • Производственный кооператив (Production cooperative) — a labour-based cooperative in which members bear subsidiary liability as set by the charter.
  • Государственное или муниципальное унитарное предприятие — ГУП, МУП (State or municipal unitary enterprise) — holds its assets on the right of economic management or operative control rather than owning them.
  • Хозяйственное партнёрство (Business partnership) — a separate statutory form in which participants are not liable for the partnership’s obligations; designed for venture projects.

Non-commercial organisations comprise the consumer cooperative, the public organisation, the association or union, the association of property owners, the Cossack society, the community of indigenous minority peoples, the foundation, the institution in its state, municipal and private variants, the autonomous non-commercial organisation, the religious organisation and the public-law company. Members are generally not liable, subject to subsidiary liability in consumer cooperatives and for the owners of institutions.

Outside the world of legal entities, the индивидуальный предприниматель — ИП (individual entrepreneur) is a natural person who answers for business obligations with all personal property and who is entered in the separate register of individual entrepreneurs.

Forms that no longer exist

The 2014 civil law reform, enacted by Федеральный закон от 05.05.2014 № 99-ФЗ, closed off two familiar forms. The общество с дополнительной ответственностью (company with additional liability) can no longer be created, and the rules on limited liability companies apply to those already in existence. The division between открытое and закрытое акционерное общество (open and closed joint-stock company) was replaced by the distinction between public and non-public joint-stock companies, with the general rules on joint-stock companies applying to existing closed companies. No re-registration was required; names are aligned when the constitutive documents are next amended.

Information available from the Russian business register

The registration law makes register data and documents open and publicly available. In practice anyone can obtain, free of charge and without holding any certificate of their own, an electronic выписка (extract) from either register as a PDF signed with an enhanced qualified electronic signature, which is legally equivalent to a paper extract; the data are refreshed daily.

The register content includes the name and legal form, the address and e-mail, the founders or participants, legal succession, liquidation, bankruptcy and forthcoming exclusion, the charter capital, the head of the executive body, flags for corporate agreements, licences, branches, the taxpayer and registration-reason codes, activity codes, reorganisation, and — importantly for due diligence — entries recording that particular information is недостоверна (unreliable). Financial statements are published separately and free of charge in the state information resource for accounting statements. The tax service also publishes a range of open data sets and an aggregated risk-profile service that combines registry and tax information.

What is restricted

Several categories are closed. Identity document numbers, dates and issuing authorities held in the registers are released only to state bodies, courts, extra-budgetary funds and the deposit insurance agency, and an individual entrepreneur’s place of residence is released only on an identified in-person request. Founding decisions, charters and founders’ data of personal funds have been closed by recent amendments, as have the percentage shares of activity codes.

The most significant restriction is the sanctions shield. Under Постановление Правительства РФ от 06.06.2019 № 729, substantially rewritten by Постановление Правительства РФ от 16.09.2022 № 1625 with effect from 1 January 2023, the tax service restricts, on the company’s application, a defined list of register items — founders and participants, legal succession, liquidation and insolvency entries, the head of the executive body, corporate-agreement flags, licences, branches and reorganisation — where the entity appears on a list of persons subject to foreign restrictive measures, or where the data would reveal a listed legal entity or a sanctioned individual founder. The list itself is maintained by the Ministry of Finance and is expressly not published, and the same mechanism can restrict the publication of financial statements. Name, address, registration number, taxpayer number and charter capital remain visible.

Finally, there is no public beneficial ownership register in Russia. Under Федеральный закон от 07.08.2001 № 115-ФЗ every legal entity must hold, update at least annually and retain for five years information on its beneficial owners, defined by ownership above a quarter of the capital or by control, and must disclose it on demand to the financial monitoring service, the tax authorities or the Ministry of Justice.

Documents that can be obtained from the register

  • Выписка из ЕГРЮЛ или ЕГРИП (Extract from the register of legal entities or of individual entrepreneurs) — all open register entries for one entity; available free as an electronic PDF with a qualified electronic signature, or on paper from an authorised inspectorate. The standard proof of existence, of the powers of the director and of ownership, and the basic know-your-customer document.
  • Справка об отсутствии запрашиваемой информации (Certificate of absence of the requested information) — confirms that a given entity or entrepreneur is not in the register.
  • Копия документа, содержащегося в реестре (Copy of a document held in the register) — in particular the устав (charter) and other constitutive documents, obtained from the inspectorate at the entity’s location and used for due diligence and corporate governance checks.
  • Лист записи ЕГРЮЛ или ЕГРИП (Register record sheet) — issued as the outcome of each registration action and evidencing the specific entry, whether incorporation, a change or termination.
  • Свидетельство или уведомление о постановке на учёт в налоговом органе (Tax registration certificate or notification) — showing the taxpayer identification number and registration-reason code.
  • Бухгалтерская (финансовая) отчётность (Accounting and financial statements) — with the auditor’s report where applicable, obtained free from the state information resource for accounting statements.
  • Сведения из Федресурса (Information from the federal resource) — legally significant facts such as bankruptcy and liquidation notices, pledges of movable property, leasing, net asset values and licences.
  • Выписка из реестра аккредитованных филиалов и представительств (Extract from the register of accredited branches and representative offices) — the equivalent document for foreign companies’ presences in Russia, issued electronically with a qualified signature.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the business registers in Russia?

The Unified State Register of Legal Entities and the Unified State Register of Individual Entrepreneurs, both maintained by the Federal Tax Service. They are separate registers, not one.

Is a Russian company extract free?

Yes. An electronic extract signed with an enhanced qualified electronic signature is available free of charge to anyone through the tax service’s register service, and it is legally equivalent to a paper extract.

Do closed joint-stock companies still exist?

No new ones. The 2014 civil law reform replaced the open and closed joint-stock company distinction with public and non-public joint-stock companies, and companies with additional liability can no longer be created.

Why is some information missing from a Russian company record?

Because of the sanctions-related restriction regime in force since 1 January 2023, a company on the government list may have its founders, director, licences, branches and related entries withheld from the public register while its name, address, registration number and capital remain visible.

Are Russian financial statements public?

Yes. They are published free of charge in the state information resource for accounting statements, subject to the same restriction mechanism.

Is there a beneficial ownership register in Russia?

Not a public one. Every legal entity must hold and update information on its beneficial owners and disclose it on demand to the financial monitoring service, the tax authorities or the Ministry of Justice.

Sources

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