Wine Law

6 line of 530 km, came in 2000 the “Law on grape and wine”, replaced with a new one in 2015 17 . In 2004 the region of Stavropol (Ставропольский край), located on the Northern slopes of the Caucasus between the Black sea and the Caspian, adopted its own “Law on state support of viticulture and winemaking” 18 . This local legislative experience was overall positive and the regions concerned became experimental sites of national importance with regard to the preparation of a federal act in the wine sector 19 . Gradually the call for a special codified legislation found its way to the lower chamber of the Russian parliament, the State Duma. For several years important public discussions were held on wine-related legal topics and subsequently more than ten projects were filed in the Duma by the legislatures of the interested regions, provided with legislative initiative by the Russian constitution, or by members of the Duma itself 20 . All of them failed to gain support 21 . A new approach was to be found in order to outline the importance and the specificities of the wine production against all the other alcoholic products on the market. In 2013 the Union of Winegrowers and Winemakers of Russia obtained the recognition of the wine as an agricultural product which was not so evident under “the vodka inspired” Federal Law No. 171-FZ of 1995. The wine production was put under the auspices of the Ministry of agriculture of the Russian federation 22 . Meanwhile, in 2002 Russia acceded 23 to the Agreement establishing the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) whose recommendations concerning the conditions for the grape production, the definition and/or the description of products, the labelling and marketing conditions as well as the methods for analysing and assessing the vine products became applicable 24 . On international level implications for the wine sector has also the established in 2014 Eurasian Economic Union, the latest post- Soviet Union project for deeper regional integration in which participate Armenia, 17 Source : http://docs.cntd.ru/document/430661120. 18 Source : http://docs.cntd.ru/document/461502884. 19 Берзин, Вл., Государственная политика в области винодельческого виноградарство , Москва, 2010, стр. 387 [Berzin, State policy in the field of winemaking viticulture , Moscow, 2010, p. 387] (http://www.moscou-ecole.ru/lib/Berzin_Vin1.pdf) . 20 Ibid ., p. 388. 21 Source : https://sozd.duma.gov.ru/bill/154358-5. 22 Source : https://swn.ru/articles/zakon-o-vine-mnenie-vinodelov-i-ekspertov. 23 Source : http://docs.cntd.ru/document/901825693. 24 By virtue of Art. 2 (2) b) of the Agreement establishing the International Organization of Vine and Wine (www.oiv.int/public/medias/2197/en-oiv-accord-20010403.pdf).