‘We’ve had cases when an insurer whose license had been annulled kept issuing obligatory car insurance certificates,’ reports Vitaliy Yakushev of Law Office 35.

‘In instances of this sort, if the insured has a car accident, the court ends up having to make them pay for the repairs themselves, since the insurance company usually goes bankrupts and therefore cannot pay. The insurer’s assets normally have low liquidity, the insurance itself is something intangible, and, in most cases, the company transfers all the money from its accounts somewhere else,’ Mr Yakushev says.

The Russian Union of Insurers that is supposed to support the clients of companies that go bankrupt refuses to pay in cases like this, as the insurer actually had no license when issuing the certificate to the insured. In the meantime, it is virtually impossible for a citizen to somehow check if the insurer does have a license. I believe our legislation should be improved in order to avoid any chances for things like this to happen,’ Mr Yakushev observed.