FOREIGN POWERS OF ATTORNEY IN RUSSIAN NOTARIAL PRACTICE

Powers of attorney certified by a foreign notary are used quite often in Russia. The question arises as to how correctly they should be considered as powers of attorney executed in notarial form; whether such powers of attorney comply with Article 163, Article 185.1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, as well as other requirements imposed by Russian legislation on the notarial form. Foreign powers of attorney used in Russian law enforcement practice in most cases do not meet Russian requirements. When certifying them, a foreign notary rarely performs all the actions, the totality of which constitutes a notarial form. In cases where a foreign notary does not notarize a power of attorney, but certifies the authenticity of a signature, such a power of attorney should be considered rather as a power of attorney not in a notarial form, but in simple written form. The key question is whether such a form is proper when a notary certifies a transaction.