Weekly Update: Eurasia

Kazakhstan – In Petropavlovsk, the Kazakhstan Institute of Directors (KID) co-director Tatiana Filina conducted an advanced seminar on corporate governance for 31 faculty members and a seminar on corporate governance basics to 24 graduate students from 1 university from April 9-11. Discussion topics during both seminar sessions included the fundamentals of shareholder rights, current trends in corporate governance in Kazakhstan, and the role of corporate governance in a democratic society.

Russia – CIPE conducted a training program in Saratov on April 17 and 18 for legal experts on how to more effectively screen out corruption potential in regional laws and regulations. Sergei Leonov, a CIPE partner and legal expert from the Saratov Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), introduced 29 participants to a technique he developed for analyzing current and proposed legislation for vague and contradictory language that can lead to corruption. Aside from the Saratov CCI, participants came from the Volgograd CCI, the Volzhsky CCI, the Togliatti CCI and the Volga Association of Entrepreneurs. The two-day training program is part of a series of four being held in Russian regional centers as part of a NED-funded project to fight corruption through legal reform.