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Taking part in the meeting were Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Ivanov, First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Vyacheslav Volodin, Presidential Aide and Head of the State Legal Directorate Larisa Brychyova, Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov, and Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Constitutional Law and State-Building Vladimir Pligin. 

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: We have lost our compatriots today in a plane crash near Tyumen. I want to express my support and condolences to the victims’ families. I propose that we honour the victims’ memory with a minute of silence. 

Minute of silence.

You may be seated.

We have several things to discuss today. One of the matters I want to discuss is the draft law on the Civil Code and the next steps to take in its respect. I should inform you all that I have submitted a draft law on amendments to the Civil Code to the State Duma. This is a big and important document that concerns the fundamental concepts of civil law.

This document was a long time in the drafting. I instructed the Justice Minister [Alexander Konovalov] to head the working group, given that there were various views to take into account. I think the result is a very balanced document that will not damage the fabric of our Civil Code, which is, after all, the most important piece of legislation regulating economic relations in our country.

Of course, I hope that the draft law receives the attention it deserves during the discussions in the State Duma because it is a complex document. We passed the Civil Code’s four sections over the course of almost 10 years. Now we have this draft law, which, as I said, concerns the basic civil law institutions, including those of legal entities, property rights, and a number of other institutions of direct consequence for our people’s lives and the work of Russian and foreign companies. In other words, it concerns practically every aspect of property relations in our country. 

This is why I hope that this document will be effective and help to strengthen the foundations of our economic life and improve our country’s investment climate. The working groups addressing these different issues have tried to ensure that the new draft of the Civil Code and the amendments it contains follow global trends in civil law development while at the same time preserving the nature of our civil law, which has its own history. In short, I hope to see this work completed because this document is of great importance for the country.

We will discuss this and a number of other law-making issues. 

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