On 21 May 2026, the final assessment took place, marking the conclusion of the annual practical Mergers and Acquisitions course for students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MGIMO) and O.E. Kutafin University (Moscow State Law Academy).
“This year, we endeavoured to present M&A transactions not merely as a set of legal documents, but as a dynamic process – from negotiations, structuring, commercial and tax aspects to financing, corporate agreements, disputes and how decisions are made in the real world” – noted Stonebridge Legal Partner and CEO Roman Prudentov, PhD in Law.
Besides studying theory, students also had the opportunity to discuss practical issues with leading experts.
“We hope that, for some, this course served as an in-depth introduction to the profession and, for others, a chance to see that in real life transactions are usually somewhat less academic,” concluded Roman Prudentov.
Lecturers from Stonebridge Legal included Mikhail Loktionov, Partner, Corporate Practice/M&A and Finance & Banking Practice; Dmitry Pozin, Partner, Corporate Practice/M&A; Roman Butenko, Partner, Dispute Resolution Practice; and Konstantin Orlov, Counsel, Corporate Practice/M&A.
Special thanks to guest experts Andrey Dontsov, academic adviser, Head of RWB Integrated Legal Department; Pyotr Ostapenko, Head of M&A at LUKOIL; and Yulia Igolkina, Tax Director, Evgenia Panevina, Senior Tax Manager, and Nune Danielyan, Tax Manager, at Technologies of Trust.
For more details on the course, please read this article.