Auditing in Russia

This paper presents an overview of the current state of auditing in Russia. International Standards on Auditing (ISA) are in the process of being adopted and implemented but this task is far from complete. Furthermore, there is resistance to ISA adoption and there is less than a widespread perception that they are needed or desirable. Russia has adopted some auditing rules that are not included in ISA and the focus of audits in many companies is tax compliance or minimization rather than attestation. Lack of full compliance with ISA makes it more difficult to attract investment capital, since foreign investors do not place much confidence in financial statements that do not comply with International Accounting Standards and that were not audited using ISA