Why block evacuation exits from shopping centers? What does this mean for society? "They are afraid of theft" and "save".

Blocking sites by the state aims to solve several serious social problems. Among them:

1. Limiting the dissemination of information that can lead to negative consequences. For example, inciting ethnic hatred or calls for extremist activities.
2. Reducing the amount of unwanted information reaching the target consumer.
3. extermination available information about drugs and, as a result, a decrease in the number of drug addicts in society, etc.
4. Exclusion from the Network of deliberately false information.
5. Fight against piracy.

What topics are banned?

The list is quite obvious, and each of the items is pursued not only on the Internet. IN real life such facts are also punishable by law.

• Extremism and aggression. Propaganda of racial intolerance, inciting ethnic conflicts and calling for real action directed against other people for some reason.
• Drugs, psychotropics, precursors. Cooking technologies, methods of consumption, distribution and any other information about them is prohibited.
• Pornography involving minors. Distribution of files containing photos or videos, compulsion to participate, propaganda, etc.
• Suicide. Information about methods of suicide, propaganda or coercion to it.
• Copyright infringement. Illegal distribution of copyright materials.

Important: The reason for blocking the site may be the unconscious use of prohibited words. Thus, an article titled “How to kill yourself at home”, posted on the gaming forum, was subjected to blocking. The title was used figuratively. In this case, the issue was resolved by deleting the article on the site.

Website blocking prevention

Your resource may not even have the slightest problem with censorship or illegal materials if you follow the basic rules.

• Text materials that you publish on the site must correspond to the topic. Try to avoid metaphors that can be misunderstood.
• If you publish video or audio materials of someone else's authorship, refer to the source and pay attention to the terms of their use specified by the author.
• Make sure that borrowed videos and audios do not contain third-party information. Review and listen to them before publishing on the site.
• If your resource involves the exchange of opinions and the publication of comments, use pre-moderation. Make sure that user comments do not contain prohibited information, and only then "open" it to all users.
• Post-moderation involves the constant presence of a moderator who monitors the statements of visitors. Should be done very quickly.
• Moderation should be carried out by deleting messages with stop words of prohibited topics, their derivatives, as well as with obscene language.
• Pay attention to "meaningless" messages. Often they contain prohibited information, presented in an "unreadable" form and inconspicuous at first glance.
• Keep in a conspicuous place the contact details of Roskomnadzor (phone and e-mail), so that in case of an unforeseen situation, contact the department and find out the situation.

How is a site blocked?

1. The hosting provider of the site receives any of the notifications: a court decision, the Federal Drug Control Service, Roskomnadzor or Rospotrebnadzor, a police order, a prosecutor's recommendation demanding to block the resource.
2. The Provider, having received a request, must block or take measures to remove prohibited materials on the site.
3. If the site is included in the Unified Register of Domain Names or the Register of Extremist Materials, the Internet provider is obliged to disable access to the site within 24 hours from the moment the domain is included in the list.
4. Termination of domain administration is carried out after sending the relevant request to RU-CENTER.
5. The decision to block the site can be sent immediately to the hosting provider without notifying the domain owner.

What to do if your site is blocked?

• Find out your IP address.
• First of all, make sure that the reason for restricting access to the site is not in the settings of your browser or antivirus. Try accessing the site from another computer or gadget. If you are using mobile internet, change your login operator.
• Check mailing address The associated with the domain. There may be a notice of blocking indicating the reasons and prohibited materials.
• Write to your hoster and try to find out the reasons for the ban. Stick to a formal tone, avoid emotion or aggression in your address.
• Examine the register of extremist materials of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, single register domain names, pages containing information that is prohibited for distribution in Russia, as well as a registry of sites that violate copyright.
• Use the whois service to find out if the administration of your site has been suspended.
• If you are required by written copy or court order to remove any materials posted on the site, do so.
• If you do not agree with the court's decision, you can file a complaint about not being notified and not properly participating in the process.

Important: if you accepted firm decision appeal the court decision to block your resource, get ready for the fact that the procedure will take months. This is a considerable waste of money, effort and nerves. During this time, your project may suffer from insufficient attention on your part. Besides, the legislative framework concerning the blocking of Internet sites is not yet complete. Therefore, no one can guarantee you a positive outcome of the appeal.

Website Blocking Facts

• You can check the URL for blocking on the website eais.rkn.gov.ru. Please note: if the site is not completely blocked, but only some of the pages, then when checking the domain, the result for blocking will be negative. That is, you need to check each page separately.
• Blocking by IP can lead to the fact that the resource will not work for someone who did not violate the rules. It's just that during the blocking of hosting, everyone who is related to it is affected.
• The state does not have malicious intent to close sites or block resources forever. If you remove content that violates the rules, your site will be restored without any problems.
• In case of blocking, it is possible to quickly switch to a new IP address without special problems. This can be done either on your own or with the assistance of a specialist.
• The craftsmen did not sit idle and found a way to visit blocked sites. This is Tor browser, which hides the visitor's location and allows access to sites from foreign IPs.
• The organization of online casinos in Russia is prohibited, and in fact they are subject to blocking, but Russian Internet roulettes have been re-registered offshore. Casino servers can be located, for example, in Holland, therefore they are not subject to withdrawal. Playing in an online casino is not punishable in Russia.
• With the advent of bitcoin or cryptocurrency, a new monetary unit has emerged. It exists exclusively on the Internet. It is impossible to abolish it in Russia, because. physically the phenomenon does not exist on the territory of the country.
• Website blocking today becomes a tool of political or commercial battles. A blocked competitor’s website undermines its credibility, prevents communication with the audience, and disrupts the workflow in every possible way.

Statistics: 35% of sites with the .ru domain work outside Russian Federation. Such data for January 2014 was published by the research service Openstat.

conclusions

To prevent your site from becoming the target of harassment, try to control the content of all content before publishing it on the site. Also follow the comments on your resource, if any, moderate and ruthlessly remove violations. Dealing with the consequences can become too difficult, and, as a disappointing result, the loss of a resource in which effort and money were invested. If you really are to blame for what happened, follow the instructions. If not, you can go to court, but remember what was discussed above.

Image copyright DMITRY SEREBRYAKOV/AFP Image caption During the evacuation from the Zimnyaya Cherry shopping center, all exits specially designed for this were blocked

The Russian Emergencies Ministry confirmed that all emergency exits in the burned-out Zimnyaya Vishnya shopping center were closed. The Russian service of the BBC understood how things are in other shopping centers throughout Russia.

The Ministry has published details of the evacuation operation from the Kemerovo shopping center. From the official statement of the department, it follows that confusion reigned in the shopping center after the start of the fire. The head of the firefighting service Andrei Bursin, who was the first to arrive at the scene of the fire, said: "All the evacuation exits were closed, every single one."

The circumstances of the tragedy in Kemerovo provoked a large-scale discussion about fire safety shopping centers. And the issue of accessibility of emergency exits has become one of the main ones.

In Moscow, activist Katrin Nenasheva decided to check how things are going in the Okhotny Ryad shopping center. "IN Okhotny Ryad some kind of incident with emergency exits - the map indicates that they are, but in fact the doors say "Service entrance" and "Entrance only by cards." The doors, of course, are closed absolutely everywhere," she wrote in her post on facebook. "Everything works for us. Everything. The doors are magnetic and will open on their own in case of fire," an employee of the shopping center who did not introduce himself reassured Nenasheva.

In other cities, activists and journalists faced the same problem. In Saratov, employees of the Svobodnye Novosti Internet publication visited three shopping centers, and fire escapes were blocked everywhere. Administration officials in one case said that "the key to the emergency exit is with the security guard," and in another they also explained that in case of fire, the doors would be unlocked automatically.

Local blogger and journalist Elena Nalimova claims that in one of these shopping centers - Triumph Mall - at least seven evacuation exits indicated on the evacuation plan have been closed or turned into shops. "This is a gross violation - [in the shopping center] there is a plan hanging that does not coincide with the real state of affairs," she told the BBC Russian Service.

Nalimova says shopping center salespeople complained to her that during the last fire alarm, when a car in the parking lot caught fire, people were being escorted out of the Triumph Mall along narrow non-functioning escalators. In the Saratov region, joint official checks shopping centers.

In Voronezh, the founder of the VKontakte community Voot, Vladimir Blagodyrev, discovered fire exits closed with magnetic locks in two shopping centers.

In one of them, he managed to get to the evacuation stairs only on the fourth floor - the doors on the second and third were closed. In the second mall, Blagodyrev found several locked doors, but most of the exits, as it turned out, were still equipped with magnetic locks. They open when electricity is supplied, the activist told the BBC Russian Service.

Children's room. escape routes

The leadership of "Winter Cherry" was also accused of the fact that the children's center was on the top floor. Although, according to the norms, children's areas in shopping centers and other public buildings should be located no higher than the second floor, so that it would be easier for children to evacuate. The SNiPs (building codes and regulations) regulating this were adopted in 2009.

In reality, most shopping centers in Russia place such zones on the top floors. The rent on the first floors is higher, and children's institutions cannot afford it.

For example, in the Moscow "Aviapark", the largest shopping center in Europe, on the third and fourth floors there are the "Kidzania" park, the "Pautinka", "Zabava" centers. Permission for this must be obtained from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Ministry of Construction.

As explained in the administration of "Aviapark", controllers carried out a fire risk assessment. "Evaluation takes into account all possible models behavior of people at the maximum load of the building - about 100 thousand people at the same time", - said the representative of the shopping center.

In malls located in Moscow and the Moscow region, owners often prefer the Anti-Panic type system to magnetic locks: it allows you to freely open the door from the inside in the direction of travel, simply by pressing the longitudinal handle. It cannot be opened from the outside.

Interlocutor of the BBC Russian Service Dmitry, long time who worked in a large shopping center in the Moscow region, says that exits on all floors were equipped with an Anti-Panic mechanism there.

The management of the complex, according to him, carefully monitored that the evacuation routes were always free, and immediately fined tenants for things left in the aisles.

Now Dmitry works in a construction hypermarket, where an unscheduled evacuation took place some time ago. People went out to open fire exits without any problems, he says.

Contradictory or complementary?

At the same time, the need to provide access to emergency exits is in conflict with other requirements when we are talking about shopping and entertainment complexes, journalist and architectural critic Grigory Revzin is convinced.

"At one time I left the Moscow city council, because we were forced to coordinate shopping centers there all the time," - writes Revzin on your Facebook.

According to the critic, three conflicting protocols collide in the organization of the work of shopping centers.

"Fire fighting demands top speed evacuation and maximum number exits. But the anti-terrorist security protocol requires the difficulty of entry and verification of each incoming. And anti-theft protocol calls for hard exit, slow exit, and the ability to check. Hence, the entrances and exits that are unnecessary from the point of view of the safety of people and goods simply cannot but be closed. They are closed everywhere."

Experts interviewed by the BBC claim that fire regulations and anti-terrorist security measures do not contradict each other. “The legislator has thought of everything on purpose, and some requirements complement others,” explained Yevgenia Baranova, spokesperson for the SERKONS Group of Companies (the company is engaged in certification in the field of industrial and fire safety). According to her, [evacuation] exits should be open whenever there are people in the building.

Baranova explained that one of the most common ways to organize a quick evacuation from inside the building and at the same time protect against unauthorized entry from the outside is through anti-panic doors.

Director large network restaurants in Moscow, who wished to remain anonymous, in a conversation with the Russian service of the BBC called nonsense the assumption that some anti-terrorist security standards require tenants to lock emergency doors. "On the contrary, all **** [extremely insistent demand - BBC] to keep all exits open."

"Afraid of theft" and "saving"

However, it is clear from judicial practice that problems with fire safety in in public places is available in many regions of Russia.

The database of court cases of the "RosPravosudie" project easily contains dozens of administrative cases received by the courts after fire and anti-terrorist security checks. Supervisory authorities often face the same violations that activists in Saratov and Voronezh encountered.

So, for example, in 2016, a court in Nevelsk found that there were no emergency exits at all in the local shopping center on the second and third floors. The authority ordered the shopping center to provide evacuation routes.

It can be assumed that the employees of the shopping center block evacuation exits (if any) not at all through an oversight. In one of the complexes visited by the Voronezh social activist Blagodyrev, the locked doors were explained to him by the fact that they were "afraid of theft."

“One handle of the anti-panic system costs 3-7 thousand rubles. Imagine that there are a thousand doors in a shopping mall. Due to their number, the cost is significant. Since there are no regulations in Russia that oblige to establish "anti-panic", many developers are trying to save on them. Many buildings have a very dangerous practice of locking doors with plastic cable clamps. This is done, for example, so that it is impossible to steal goods and leave the hall unnoticed through the emergency exit. Instead, one could apply engineering systems security - sirens triggered by illegal opening," says Szymon Matkowski, partner of the international architectural bureau Blank Architects. Such sirens will automatically turn off in the event of an alarm.

Engineering and architectural measures are not enough. According to Matkovsky, employees of shopping centers should act very competently in case of alarm, directing people to evacuation exits. Visitors themselves may not know where they are located, and in a panic they will try to leave the building the same way they came.

"Not better way train employees how to organize drills in a working building. But imagine, on Saturday, with full stores and cinemas, we kick everyone out of the building. These are huge costs that require monetary compensation. Therefore, building managers do not carry them out," he says.

For a week now, Roskomnadzor has been actively blocking IP addresses associated with the Telegram messenger. But why Telegram is blocked, in this article I will provide the official and most possible reasons.

The official reason for blocking Telegrams

By official version the reason for the blocking was the refusal of the head of Telegram to hand over the keys to decrypt messages to the FSB. According to representatives of the RKN, the lack of access to these ciphers by special services will lead to the fact that terrorists can use it to organize explosions and other acts of violence.

In his defense, Pavel Durov stated that "confidentiality is not for sale" and in addition, a significant part of the keys is stored on mobile devices users. Telegram simply cannot hand them over to the authorities concerned. But his argument was not heard, and the court delivered its verdict.

The reason for the creation of Telegram cryptocurrency

One of the FSB officers in correspondence with colleagues named the “real” reason for the blocking Telegram messenger. According to the security official, the idea of ​​the creator of the service Pavel Durov to develop his own cryptocurrency became a threat to Russia's security. It is reported by RBC.

The letter sent by an employee of the 12th center of the FSB (supervises issues of operational-search activities) Roman Antipkin contains an explanation of the reason for blocking the messenger.

“Pasha Durov decided to become the new Mavrodi. By launching our crypto, we in Russia will get a completely uncontrolled financial system. And this is not bitcoin for the marginalized, it will be simple, reliable and uncontrolled. This is a threat to the country's security,” Antipkin said in a letter quoted by RBC. The author added that "all drugs, cashed out, trade in organs will go through Pasha's crypt."

The authenticity of the letter was confirmed to the publication by a federal official and a top manager of one of the telecom operators. Market participants and officials interviewed by RBC said that Antipkin repeatedly represented the 12th center of the FSB at meetings, including on the implementation of the Yarovaya Law.

Lobbying mobile operators

Another curious version of what is happening is that Roskomnadzor is in collusion with telecom operators, and therefore began actions against Telegram.

It is known that with the spread of messengers, operators mobile communications suffered significant financial losses. You can count yourself. Previously, all SMS were paid, from the ruble and above. How many such messages were sent per day? Hundreds of millions!

Cause in the fight against the opposition

Some journalists and political analysts believe that the secret services want to get access to the messenger in order to follow the organizers of rallies and pickets, and in which case, detain them. Thus, they will be able to take control of power and not allow people dissatisfied with the existing political system to express their opinion in any way. For protests sometimes develop into something more, for example, into a revolution.

Roskomnadzor promotes Telegram

It is also widely believed that this is a well-planned PR action by Pavel Durov. It has been noticed that after the court ruling, interest in Telegram has grown significantly. In the first day of blocking, the messenger got 270,000 new users.

Everything written above is only a value judgment, the point of view of the author. The article was not created to offend or defame anyone.

One of the most discussed topics in the business environment in the outgoing year is the blocking of accounts by banks. At least 500,000 entrepreneurs faced this problem during the year. A bank account can be blocked for almost anything, and returning to normal service is often only possible through a lengthy judicial review process.

Why do mass blocking of business settlement accounts occur and how to avoid it? Rusbase collected real stories entrepreneurs and expert advice.

"The situation is outrageous"

The organization "Business Russia" has calculated that since the beginning of the year, banks in the country have blocked at least half a million accounts. That is, 500,000 companies and entrepreneurs stopped making and accepting payments and were unable to conduct their business normally. Business Ombudsman Boris Titov has already intervened in the situation, saying that back in October he received at least two appeals a week related to extrajudicial blocking of bank accounts. The Commissioner for Entrepreneurs' Rights addressed the Central Bank with a proposal to create an understandable mechanism for excluding organizations from the "black list".

The list of organizations and entrepreneurs who, for one reason or another, were denied service by banks, is compiled by the Central Bank according to information from Rosfinmonitoring. It is sent to credit institutions, which, at their own discretion, refuse to serve the persons on the list.

One of the entrepreneurs who, apparently, fell into this “black list” was Pyotr Kondaurov, founder of the “Reengineering Studio of Pyotr Kondaurov”. He served in Tinkoff bank' and until recently was quite pleased. All payments made by Kondaurov's company were transparent and backed by relevant documents.

But one day the businessman received an SMS from the bank demanding to close the account and withdraw funds. According to the entrepreneur, the employees did not explain to him the reason for this decision. The companies simply did not have a choice - after paying a decent commission, the money had to be transferred to another bank. The business suffered losses, there were problems with counterparties.

Petr Kondaurov

In general, the situation causes fear and resentment. When you can be deprived of the opportunity to conduct business without trial and investigation. When your finely tuned machine of relations with clients and performers, which feeds your family and children, can be cut down on the basis of suspicions alone at a time when you did not violate any laws and regulations, without the right to even justify yourself and prove your non-involvement in fraud and terrorist actions.

According to entrepreneurs who have faced the blocking of their current account, banks often do not explain anything. Being blacklisted becomes something of a stigma for companies: most likely, they will not open an account in other banks either.

Petr Kondaurov

Founder of "Reengineering Studio of Petr Kondaurov"

A bank without a trial can blacklist you under 115-FZ, and then not a single bank will open an account for you, effectively depriving you of the opportunity to legally earn money. What to do then? It is a pity that IPshnikov are not enough to arrange protests. Before the elections, I think they would be listened to.

Now the entrepreneur is looking for another bank and hopes that they will first sort it out and negotiate, and not close the account without listening to the client's arguments.

Anyone can be blocked

The reason for the surge in account blocking in 2017 was new recommendations issued by the Central Bank of Russia. The lengthy document describes the signs on the basis of which banks can identify "suspicious" actions of legal entities. Here are just a few of them:

• transit nature of transfers Money;
• payment of taxes in the amount of less than 0.9% of the current account turnover, operations aimed at minimizing the tax burden;
• there is no payment of wages from the account;
• account balances are not comparable with turnover;
• there is a contradiction between the grounds for payments, costs and activities of the organization;
• there are no payments within the framework of the client's business activities (rental payments, public Utilities and others);
• more than 30% of cash turnover;
• from the date of creation legal entity less than 2 years have passed;
• regular cash withdrawals, as a rule, in an amount not exceeding 600 thousand rubles and using corporate bank cards.

That is, as you can see, it is rather difficult to avoid at least one of the listed “violations”. Therefore, almost all entrepreneurs have the risk of being blocked.

Andrey Kuzmin, senior partner at Titov, Kuzmin & Partners, believes that banks' desire to play it safe led to mass blocking. In general, the legal basis for the out-of-court blocking of an account is Federal Law No. 115 “On Counteracting the Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime and the Financing of Terrorism”. On the basis of this law, Rosfinmonitoring draws up its "black list", which includes companies caught in illegal operations - terrorist financing and money laundering. It is impossible to get into this list by chance, since the reasons must be quite serious. The vast majority of entrepreneurs face blocking for other reasons. They are described in those very new recommendations of the Central Bank. But the banks took them not as a recommendation, but as a guide to action. And they began to block everyone in a row, "just in case."

Andrey Kuzmin

senior partner

Titov, Kuzmin & Partners

There is no way to avoid claims 100%. Even our law firm once had questions when we paid fees to the Bar Association. Sometimes suspicions are caused by harmless operations. For example, one of our clients has blocked the operation to pay bonuses to employees. It happens that transactions for the purchase of expensive objects, such as equipment or real estate, arouse suspicion.

The editor of the Bankir.ru portal, Elena Gosteva, agrees that the recommendations of the Central Bank contain points that, if interpreted appropriately, give grounds to block the account of any company:

Elena Gosteva

Editor of Bankir.ru

Most frequent cases blocking is when one type of activity is prescribed in the company's statutory documents, and the payment comes for completely different services. For example, in your charter it is written: “production of dumplings”, and the payment comes for the provision of consulting services. And the bank will not care that you, as an entrepreneur, advised someone precisely on the issue of the production of dumplings.

Kirill Voitsekhovich-Kazantsev, the founder of the i-Retail retail service developer, says that not only many of his clients, but also himself, have faced account blocking. From the negative experience, the entrepreneur made a disappointing conclusion: it is almost impossible to prove one’s case to banks, and one can unlock an account only if one has influential connections in the bank itself:

Kirill Voitsekhovich-Kazantsev

Founder

If the account is blocked, there is practically no chance to defend one’s case ... If for some reason the financial monitoring does not like the operations of the legal entity, the account can be blocked absolutely for empty place, motivating this most often with a simple suspicion. This is a very convenient wording when there are no obvious signs of violations and there is no need to explain anything. No one will deal with the entrepreneur, they just block the account and that's it.

In his opinion, Internet entrepreneurs who care about the speed of settlements are the worst off. If a company that works with online orders quickly makes payments, then this alone can get on the list of suspicious ones. The conservatism of the employees of the supervisory departments also plays a certain role, the businessman believes.

Kirill Voitsekhovich-Kazantsev

Founder

Andrey Komissarov, head of the Komissarov and Partners Bar Association, says that banks proceed from the “presumption of guilt” of entrepreneurs:

Andrey Komissarov

Head of the Bar Association "Komissarov and Partners"

The Central Bank has repeatedly pointed out that the presence of a company in the "black lists" is not an independent reason for refusing to work with it. However, the presumption of bad faith of the client actually operates. The company in most cases, especially when automating the process, can immediately face denials of service under the contract, and banks will not bother to conduct a comprehensive analysis of a specific client transaction, as required by the regulator ... Almost any company can suffer from the suspension of operations on accounts, closing remote access to Internet banking and others restrictive measures, while often not receiving any warnings, explanations, or being content with meaningless wording about suspicious transactions.

It turns out that blocking the accounts of entrepreneurs is often associated with subjective factors: the bank simply does not like what you are doing. And if so, it means that entrepreneurs will have to adapt for some time (before developing an effective unblocking mechanism) and learn to avoid actions that vigilant banks may regard as a reason for inclusion in the “black list”.

How to avoid account blocking

An unconditional blocking of an account, that is, the suspension of all banking operations on it, is possible only if the organization or individual is included in the list of persons involved in extremist activities or terrorism. This is the very "black list" of Rosfinmonitoring, which is published on the agency's website. Most conscientious entrepreneurs will not find themselves there. But, as we managed to find out, there are many other reasons for refusing to conduct transactions on accounts and subsequent blocking.

According to the rules of most banks, the entrepreneur's current account is not blocked immediately after a suspicious transaction is detected. To begin with, the bank may suspend the transaction itself or prohibit it from being carried out.

• Suspension of the operation on the account is possible if the bank suspects that the operation is carried out on a dubious transaction.
• Refusal to carry out the operation is possible if the client has not confirmed the purity of the transaction. The bank can also ask you to terminate the current account agreement - and this is also, strictly speaking, not a blocking.

According to Oleg Kharechko, Leading Legal Counsel at Alta Via Law Firm, an entrepreneur can always challenge any action of the bank in court. True, this can take a lot of time:

Oleg Kharechko

Any blocking of transactions on accounts made by the bank can be challenged both by filing a complaint with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and in court. IN last case it is possible not only to challenge the actions of the bank, but also to sue it in connection with the improper performance of the bank account agreement, followed by the recovery of the damage caused. For example, a bank has the right to completely block an account for all operations only if the entrepreneur is on the list of persons involved in extremist activities and terrorism.

In all other cases, a complete blocking is possible only by Rosfinmonitoring for a period of a month during an audit or by a court decision. Therefore, if an entrepreneur's account has been blocked, but he is not on the list of banned persons, the blocking can be challenged. Difficulties arise mainly due to the fact that litigation lasts for months, while even a couple of days of delay in a banking transaction can be critical for a client.

Heritage Group Managing Director Olga Kirillova recalls that banks, as a rule, first send a notification to the entrepreneur and ask for documents if a particular operation aroused their suspicion:

Olga Kirillova

Managing Director Heritage Group

Requests for the provision of documents are sent either by e-mail, or through the communication system in online banking. It is necessary to collect and provide them as soon as possible to prevent blocking of the account. Unblocking an account is a long and difficult procedure, and you will not always be able to prove the integrity of the company to the bank. It is much easier to prevent such a situation by carefully conducting transactions on the current account.

At the same time, as lawyer Andrey Kuzmin emphasizes, refusal to conduct an operation is also a dangerous phenomenon. “Two refusals in a year - and the bank has a reason to terminate the bank account agreement,” says the lawyer.

To avoid suspicion from the bank, entrepreneurs, according to experts interviewed by Rusbase, need to follow several rules:

• check counterparties and avoid contacts with one-day firms;
• be on legal address or at least receive mail there;
• pay close attention to the purpose of the payment. From them it should be clear what the payment is for;
• moderate cash withdrawals and lending individuals;
• do not separate settlement accounts into those from which taxes are paid and those used for the main activity;
• the tax burden should be more than 0.9% of turnover.

It may also seem suspicious regular transfers money to individuals and individual entrepreneurs, money transfers to foreign counterparties without the simultaneous payment of VAT, quick debiting of funds received. It is considered extremely dangerous to pay bills for third parties. “In this case, blocking occurs instantly,” warns Olga Kirillova.

Natalya Kordyukova, deputy director of the international tax planning department at the Cliff law firm, says that companies that are associated with counterparties - foreign entities, especially from offshore companies or associated with political activities, are under suspicion. Also at risk are those organizations that do not stay at the place of registration or do not have a website. Banks show increased attention to those who work in "dubious" industries: sweepstakes, pawnshops, charitable organizations, companies involved in the sale of precious metals and cars.

The main thing that experts advise is to provide banks with all the information on the first request. Most likely, having received a legal justification for a “doubtful” operation, the bank will allow it to be carried out and remove all claims.

Andrey Kuzmin

senior partner

Titov, Kuzmin & Partners

However, sometimes the situation gets more complicated. For example, the bank sent a request, the documents were provided, but the block is not removed. In this case, you must already come to the bank office and find out the reasons. It happens that the documents were not even looked at. Sometimes you may receive an offer to terminate the bank account agreement by agreement of the parties. As a rule, you should not refuse such offers, since the bank may initiate a forced cancellation of the contract with the organization being blacklisted.

What the banks say

Nikolai Fedotkin, the owner of the online electronics store Video-Shoper.ru, also faced account blocking. He is a client of a bank in the top 10 in terms of assets, which one day blocked the possibility of making payments to the company's current account. According to the entrepreneur, the bank's specialists did not explain the reasons for the suspension of transactions and did not even accept documents from him that confirm the legality of the business.

“We do not need any letters or documents from you. We will not look at anything, your Internet bank is blocked, we do not give any explanations, you can now work only through the Savelovskaya branch or you can take your money, ”

- Fedotkin quotes the words of employees.

As a result, the entrepreneur was offered to withdraw money from the account with a commission of 25%. And this is 1 million rubles. As an option - close the current account and transfer funds to a new one. In response, the entrepreneur decided to completely change the service bank.

Recently, Modulbank conducted a study in which it analyzed the main reasons for blocking the accounts of entrepreneurs. It turned out that in 100% of cases, companies fell under two or more criteria"suspiciousness" listed in the recommendations of the Central Bank. Here are some more findings from this study:

• 70% of companies whose accounts were blocked this year did not pay additional personal income tax on the results of transfers to individuals;
• 55% of blocked companies withdrew money from their accounts abnormally quickly, never delaying it;
• 50% of companies worked with unreliable contractors;
• 45% of entrepreneurs paid taxes in insignificant amounts, incomparable with the scale and type of business;
• 38% of companies have previously come to the attention of Rosfinmonitoring due to problems with banking services;
• 35% of companies paid insufficient VAT;
• 9% of companies were withdrawing too much cash.

The bank is obliged to include such a client in the list of so-called "refuseniks" and inform the regulator about it. But put yourself in the place of the bank. It is impossible to open an account on formal grounds, and it is also not allowed to refuse a client. Banks have found a way out of the situation. The operator will ask you a large number of additional documentation, and this will turn the client off automatically. Or he will simply report that the application is still pending. And you can receive this status for months, until you get tired of waiting and leave to open in another bank.

The expert advises to be prepared for the fact that the bank will ask a lot of questions. Then one thing remains - to prove that you are clean before the law. Operating companies can provide tax documentation, detailed accounting, recommendations from counterparties, documents from other banks - everything that will demonstrate law-abidingness and goodwill.

The Central Bank and Rosfinmonitoring, under pressure from the business community, agreed to develop an algorithm for the rehabilitation of companies included in the stop list. Perhaps the mechanism will start working in 2018.

Olga Kirillova, Managing Director of Heritage Group: “The problem is that Rosfinmonitoring and the Central Bank have not yet created a mechanism for rehabilitating blacklisted clients. Because before, in fact, only terrorists, drug dealers, arms dealers and slave traders were on the black list, who are not subject to rehabilitation. Amendments to the legislation are currently being prepared that can help bona fide companies that have been blacklisted due to excessive zeal of banks.”

Until then, any company can suddenly find itself among the growing army of blocked, even if the business is transparent as a mountain stream, and the founder is pure, like the Pope. Alta Via's leading legal adviser, Oleg Kharechko, believes that at this stage, entrepreneurs can only fight for their rights in private - to demand from Rosfinmonitoring and the Central Bank to remove themselves from the "black list" and hope not to get on it again.