On February 9, 2009 the President of RF Dmitry Medvedev signed the federal law "On Providing Access to Information regarding the Work of Public and Local Authorities".

The law was passed by the State Duma on January 21 and approved by the Federation Council on January 28 this year.

According to the document any volunteer may obtain information he is interested in not only in oral or written form but also by e-mail. A user has the right not to justify the necessity of obtaining the requested information about the work of public authorities, which normally has limited access.

The violation of right for access to information by public and local officials may entail disciplinary, administrative, civil and criminal responsibility.

According to the document information about the work of public and local authorities is provided for free, apart from particular cases where the volume of requested and received information exceeds the volume of information available for free adjusted by the Government of RF.

Thus, providing for openness of work of public authorities and executing the people’s right for access to information about their work, the law will have anti-corruption features.

The law will come into effect on January 1, 2010.